quote:
Originally posted by mikesears:
I once read on a now defunct website, "call the obvious, blow the whistle when a foul or violation causes an advantage or disadvantage to a player".
While I wouldn't say A/D entails an effort to level the playing field for a weaker team, I WOULD say that most experienced refs do, in fact, "cut some slack" for a team being blown out, particularly because, as earlier posts describe, the same type of contact may not affect the stronger player but does affect the weaker one. So if the team well ahead in score continues to play so aggressively that they are still doing a lot of bumping, etc. that affects their opponents, I would be calling that kind of contact. At the same time, similar contact by the losing team would be given more latitude, particularly if it doesn't result in that team losing the ball or missing a shot. If I called the game exactly the "same" for both teams, the game would or could become a joke and not much fun for anybody.