[M&M Guy]

Nate - please allow me to throw my .02 in. Words and phrases sometimes have different meanings depending on who is saying them, and who is hearing them. "Let the players determine the outcome" is one of those phrases. I think that, as a whole, all good officials subscribe to this statement. Now, there are indeed some officials that want and like the "spotlight" and enjoy making a call, or even making up a call, just to have the spolight on them at the end of a game, and that's a shame. But there are also those officials that want to avoid that spotlight at all costs, even to the point of not making necessary calls, just so people won't notice them as much at the end of close games. And these officials always use "I'm letting the players determine the outcome" as their excuse for not making those calls. I have met and seen enough officials in my time to know that it's usually these types of officials that use that phrase; most of the others consider this to be so obvious that it's not worth saying. Kind of like saying the sun's gonna rise in the east tomorrow. How many times have you said that recently?

Also, don't confuse testicular fortitude with wanting the spotlight; those are two different things. Making the right call at the end of a game, knowing that it may put that unwanted spotlight on you, takes guts. Too many lesser officials shy away from making the correct call because they're afraid of the spotlight. And that's NOT letting the players decide the game, that's YOU deciding the game by making or not making a call just to avoid controversy. If it's a foul or a violation at the 7:00-minute mark in the first half, it's the exact same call with 3 seconds left in a tie game, even though you know the home crowd is going to let loose with a whole bunch of expletives.

So, just in my experience, saying "let the players decide the game" is "code" for "I don't have enough guts to make an unpopular, but correct, call." Maybe that's not what you're saying, but that is what some officials hear in that statement. Again, jmo.