[Back In The Saddle]

Philz,

Rainmaker's response aside, I think you have heard the correct answer. I would certainly not call that a foul. But I would question whether or not there had been anything else in the game that led to the "head tackle." That's a pretty big leap, even for wreck ball.

Being wreck ball, the teams probably know each other and there may have been bad blood already. That happens. And wreck leagues are notorious for ***holes whose basic game philosophy includes the notion of "I'll show them!"

As I've matured as an official, I can now look back at games where trouble errupted and can usually identify places where I didn't recognize something was brewing and nip it in the bud. Normally, at least in men's ball, even if somebody does something stupid or outrageous, if it gets called right away, the "victim" will usually let it go. But if "things" don't get called, frustration starts to build. Even if it appears that two guys are going at each other pretty much equally, and nobody is gaining an advantage, you probably have frustration building on at least one person's part. You need to set the accepted level of physicality, not the players. I knew that I was on the right track when I started calling some fouls early just to clean up play, and the guy getting fouled would thank me. He hadn't necessarily shown that he was unhappy with what had been going on at the time, but his response made it clear that he was.

Just my $0.02