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I'm so glad that Wednesday is the championship game of intramural flag football here at UT. Tonight was absolutely awful; one supervisor told me it was the worst single hour he had seen since he'd been working for RecSports.
My game (I am WH): Everything had gone smoothly until right before halftime. Team Orange (I'll call them Orange and Black, since those were the colors), who is trailing 13-12, throws a touchdown pass, but it is called back on OPI. Clock is still running, as per RecSports rules that the clock does not stop in 1st half for anything except a charged time out or official's (injury) time out. So I'm administering the penalty, the clock is winding down, about 2 or 3 seconds left. Orange (who is out of time-outs) is screaming at me to get the ball set and let them run a play. While I'm trying to calm them down and explain that they will get another play since a half cannot end on an accepted penalty, they snap the ball anyway. I blow it dead and tell them to wait. Orange's center heaves the ball toward his sideline in frustration, and all hell nearly breaks loose. I nail him with a USC, back them up 10 more (short field, no 15's), and give them their untimed down. They don't score, half ends.
Second half goes OK until the end, except Orange complains the whole half. I couldn't tell you how many USC's we had, but it was a bunch. Orange retakes the lead, 19-13, with about 3 minutes to play. Black gets the ball and is driving, things are getting tense. All of a sudden, I hear from Orange's side of the ball, directed at Black's sideline, "F*** off, f*****." I drop my flag for USC and toss the guy; I'd heard enough from their team for one night. He starts claiming he didn't say anything; I say that someone sure did and if it wasn't him, someone had better fess up. He is not that team's best athlete so they don't say anything. Black eventually scores with about a minute to play and takes a 20-19 lead. Orange gets the ball back, turns it over on downs. Black sideline goes nuts, I flag them for USC; at the same time, Orange is giving me the cussing of my life. I call the game at this point. As I'm leaving the field (in a hurry), I am informed, with a few choice words, that the penalties were 17-3 against the Orange team. I tell them they brought it upon themselves because they would never shut up and I get the heck out of there.
I stay in the officials' room for about 15 minutes, enough time for everyone to clear out. After I leave, the guy I tossed comes after me, wanting to know why he got tossed. I told him, and he tells me to go f*** myself, among other things. As far as I'm concerned, he just got banned from all RecSports facilities.
Oh, the other game? It went to double OT and the team that lost was still complaining to the intramural director after I left. Apparently every intramural official is "biased" against their team, if you get my drift.
I've got the women's championship tomorrow, that should go MUCH more smoothly -- we hope.
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