Quote:
Originally posted by Nevadaref
This is for all of those here who so enjoyed my 0 or 00 thread.  I did read that entire thing a couple of days later, and do value many of the opinions expressed there, as this story will demonstrate.
Last Friday I was the R for a girls game in which the home team wore illegal jerseys. Every single one of them had the number on the front of the jersey positioned in the upper right of the chest.
This was a league game and determined 3rd and 4th place.
Yeah, I knew that by rule that the numbers were required to be centered vertically and horizontally (3-4-2 for those who care.), but I just didn't have the heart to penalize for this.
Oh, what is the proper penalty? It's a player technical foul on EACH girl who participates. That would mean FIVE Ts and TEN FTs to start the game, and then whacking EVERY substitute the first time she enters. Can you imagine that? 
It may justly be asked why I chose to penalize the wearing of double-zero and not the wearing of these illegal shirts. I can only say that the sheer number of Ts made the difference. I would more than likely have been suspended for the rest of the season had I called it by the book and given out about 10 Ts that night.
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First of all let me say, I too would not have issued the T's. However, what you are doing is deciding which rules to strictly enforce. I'm not criticizing you. I imagine that we all do it. I know I do. You were using common sense. No advantage was gained. However, does that not weaken ones argument in other debates when they say "That's not by the book."? Nobody calls everything by the book. So what criteria do we use to determine when we are going to deviate from strictly enforcing the rules?
Advantage/Disadvantage? Common Sense?
What discretion do we have as officials? And when have we gone too far?
[Edited by rwest on Feb 9th, 2005 at 09:46 AM]