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on this post, but I think it is something all officials need to keep in mind.
I get a sense from the posts that I read that there is a cavalier attitude by many of the posters that the coaches in general don't know the rules. This may be the case. But it has been my experience, that most coaches do know the rules. In fact, many times better than the officials who are calling the games.
I will cite one example to illustrate my point (although, there are others as well):
there was a discussion about how a player's head placement has absolutely (not a tinker's damn, quite an enteratining discussion by the way) nothing to do with whether or not a clip or a block in the back has occurred. The official that posted that is 100% correct. But as a coach reading this message board, I took that as slap against the coaching profession, and probably wrongfully so, because I am accused of being wrong more than I am right.
The reason that I am taking it that way is because the wording, in my opinion, gives the impression that coaches teach it that way, with the implication that we don't know the rules (again, this is my interpretation of what was written). We coaches know the rule exactly...and it is exactly as the official said it was. The problem lies in the interpretation.
We coaches teach to always place the head in front of a player to assist the official in making the correct call. Not because we don't know the rule. It is physically impossible to hit someone from behind with your head in front of them. It could be at one side and hit a player from behind, but if your head is in front of them you will always hit them in the front (unless you have a 2 foot anaconda neck that could wrap around a "victim").
If you are blocking into the side of an opponent (perfectly legal as pointed out in the post that I am referencing), and you were to have your head behind that opponent, dependent upon the official's perspectice, it could appear as a block from behind. And that has happened to my players MANY times. Officials, in general, in my personal experience, tend to flag anything that looks like it could be a block in the back for fear of NOT calling a legitimate block in the back.
While most of you who read this board probably know the rules very well, I think that you are in the minority of all officials that work high school games. Obviously, those of you who do post here are very serious about the craft and have a thirst for more knowledge in the hopes of betterment of the trade. Quite admirable in my opinion, and I appreciate all of you who take this approach.
Unfortunately, football is a very fluid and dynamic game with rules interpretations that can go either way. Officating as a trade is very similar to economics. If you ask 100 economists what is going to happen in the future, you will get 100 different responses based on the same set of parameters. This is all too frequently the case in officiating.
I am not talking about the rules interpretations that are spelled out in the rule book. I am talking about the ones that aren't. My post about the change in possession is a prefect example. The rule book doesn't specifically define how the situation would be handled, and therefore leaves the crew working the game with the decision. Obviously, we can't have rules defining every concievable scenario that can happen in a football game.
Therefore, don't be so quick to say that coaches don't know the rules. Coaches tend to draw on past interpretations as to how they react to calls. If an official rules on a play one way in a game, we have a tendancy to believe it to be the correct call the next time it happens to us. Then when the next set of officals interprets the rules just the opposite, that is when the frustration comes out.
Additionally, remember that officials aren't fired as a result of a bad calls. Coaches are.
And if you don't believe that bad calls impact certain teams more than others...how about an illegal kick ball and a 5th down as witnessed against the Univ of Missouri.
How about an additional down as a result of DPI in overtime of a national championship game (obivously, that call was debateable)? That call was the turning point in the game whether or not one's view is that Miami did nothing earlier in the game to deserve the win. As for whether or not that call impacts Larry Coker's job at the Univ of Miami, it probably doesn't, but it sure makes a difference on the dollars that he could command with 2 National Championships vice 1.
I am sure that some of the posters to this board will be quick to point out that those officals won't be able to work future games as a result of bad calls -- which I am sure is the case. But they are not relying on the officating income to take care of their families, put food on the table, and purchase adequate housing. We coaches are.
Please keep this in mind when you are working a game and feel that a coach doesn't know the rules.
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