Originally posted by rainmaker
6 players? Who's talking about 6 players? I thought the subject was a throw-in by the wrong team?
Rich cited another case where he chose to not call a T for 6 players on the floor. Your response was "I agree. Completely. And that would be the right thing to do." I agree too.... even though it goes against the specific rule which says to call a T on a team if they have 6 players on the floor during a live ball.
I rarely choose "common sense" over a rule.
Key word being "rarely." That is exactly my point. I rarely do too.
Even when I do something that isn't in the rule book, it's according to my interpreter.
Interpreter's don't cover every once-in-a-lifetime situation. Sometimes you have to crawl out on that ledge by your lonesome.
I find that common sense varies from person to person and is not to be relied on. The rules as interpreted locally are much more solid footing.
Yes, common sense does vary from one to another. Anyone can call fouls and violations. It's that common sense and game management that provides separation between officials.
In fact, yes, I have given T's for the elbows, and for 6 on the floor, and I've apologized for not being able to have a do-over on giving the ball to the wrong team. And if anyone ever complained to my assignor that I was being "a rulebook official" he said, "Good. That's what we work toward."
Yikes. I put a high value on rule knowledge, but I know what "rulebook official" means and it isn't a good thing.
But none of that answers my question to you. Am I picking and choosing? You didn't give any specifics.
Just relating back to your own post.
And you said nothing about my case book reference. The sitch at the beginning of this thread is described exactly in the case book, and the clear answer is there, too. There's nothing gray about it.
Like I already said, I don't know a single official that hasn't varied from the rules in weird and once-in-a-lifetime circumstances. Is it right or wrong? I guess you can't know unless you were there.
Have a nice evening. Gotta go train some newbies. I'll try not to screw them up too bad.
Z