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The clinic was good. This was my third year as well...first time with anyone else on my crew in attendance. I agree that I pick stuff up at every one. Well worth the $40. My only complaint is the way the on field scrimmage was run. I think this is a limitation of the players being brought in, but it would work much better to to try and more realistically simulate a live action drive. I was fine with stopping the play when a player was wrapped up, but it is hard to communicate when you have a coach and a couple of his subs that are closer to the QB than the referee. I'd like to have the opportunity to run 4 or 5 plays in a row with the same sort of timing and flow as live action scrimmage.
The big thing I took from it was a discussion with Mark Boltz (sp?) on working the LJ position. In the past on close in situations, its always been my understanding and SOP to never "give" a TD away. If you see the ball carrier go into a mass of humanity on the goal line, but never see the ball cross; I'd always mark it short. Though being, better to call it short than to give a runner an advantage by assuming that he wasn't down. Baltz suggested that current though in the NFL was to have the umpire freeze the ball in a pile (upon the whistle) and the two wings are to come in. The determintion of TD or not is based on that spot of the ball...I actually challanged him on this a little bit. It just didn't sit right with me. I can see the logic in his arguement, and givin his extensive experience I'm really sort of chewing on this to decide if this is something I want to adopt.
I suppose that the real utility of any clinic...to make you consider different ways to officiate and new perspectives on rules interperation and an application.
As for the RTK interperation...I was glad to hear that was your interperation. I'm not comfortable with loosing the protectin guidelines on the K. I think doing so would be a safety issue. We all know there are coaches that encourage their DL and LB to hit the QB when they get the opportunity. The past tight guidelines on the K have prevented this, but I believe coaches will take a similar attitude towards going after the K if things are drastically altered.
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