Quote:
Originally Posted by crosscountry55
Good play callers, but probably haven’t read through the books in years.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Raymond
What bothers me is if people who do not study the rules dispense rules knowledge to newer officials.
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Forty years ago, when I started officiating, a premium was put on "play calling" and "game management", even at the expense of rules knowledge, mechanics, and signals. They got assigned the best games, and the tournament games, even if they occasionally, or often, kicked an "odd" situation rule (correctable error, false double foul, etc.).
We learned a lot from them about "play calling" and "game management", and I thank them for that, but most of us knew, in the back of our minds, that these guys (and they were all guys back then) had limitations and were about to become relics of past, and that we needed to learn "more" to progress in the modern game.
As time passed, the best games, and the tournament games, seemed to be more assigned to officials with the "whole package", or close to it. "Play calling" and "game management" are still very important, but now other things, like rules knowledge, are also valued.