[stevesmith]

While I appreciate the enthusiasm generated from my original post, I think things went in a different direction than I intended. As a 16 year football official, I can certainly understand the need for objective judgement. It's amazing how good common sense will get you through many tough situations, regardless of the sport you're officiating.

The intent in my first post here was meant to point out just how difficult lacrosse rules specifically are to comprehend compared to other sports. Most any first year official can call pass interference in football, or goaltending in basketball, or a hand ball in soccer. But I consider myself a pretty smart individual with a total of 26 years officiating experience in different sports, and as a first year lacrosse official, trying to apply what's written in the rule book to what happens on the field is as difficult an undertaking as any sport I've ever done!

Although I never played the game, I've spent the last three years watching my son play, so fortunately, I have a pretty good grasp of the rules. Now, as with any sport, I have to learn to apply what I know in the appropriate ways at the appropriate times. It appears that I am lucky enough to have found the right group of people to teach me.

I will repeat my initial statements, that lacrosse is not an easy game to learn for the common uneducated spectator, as compared to other sports. I don't have any specific thoughts at the moment, but I still believe that there are some concessions that could be made to improve the popularity of Lacrosse without having to change the integrity of the game.