[JRutledge]

Rich,

I agree that the officials need to take action. But when they take action they officials get blamed for doing something wrong by the coaches. Even this jerk coach I worked with the other day tried to threaten to report me because he could not understand why I T'd him up. Now I am a veteran, I not only know the process of how you report an official, but I know how they anyone is going to react to him reporting me. I not explaining something to his liking is not a good reason. A younger official is not going to be as aware of that. A younger official might actually think that he or she is in some kind of trouble or something might really arise as a result. Not only that, if he reported me to the assignor, he was there and saw his behavior all by himself. I agree that officials need to take more actions, but coaches and schools do not take enough personal responsibility for their actions. They think because they do not curse they are OK. But they feel they can raise their voice, call you everything close to a name, but when we T your sorry behind up we were taking their actions personally. I even threw out a kid yesterday for kicking another player after a dead ball and the coach tried to make it about me and not the kid. There is this growing culture of blaming others for your own actions. I am just wondering when these coaches get stuck (or their kids) they are not going to go into these speeches about "This was the first time...." or "That kid would never do that." Why can't these guys just accept the punishment and move on?

Peace