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Originally Posted by ajmc
I think most would quickly agree that flags hanging out of a pocket, or from a belt, like an auto mechanic's rag is not the look we're searching for, but all this fuss about a white ball, a yellow ball or someone reaching and not throwing is just so much nonsense.
I keep my flags in my back pockets (deep) mostly because that's the way I learned. It's not any better than keeping them tucked into my belt, but it's no worse either. What matters is they're comfortable back there and it works for me. There are times when I might reach, but change my mind as my view improves, but nothing matters until my flag is thrown. Coaches have at times, although not very often, questioned what I was reaching for and when I'm smart I just ignore them and chuckle while I wonder why they were looking at my *** instead of their players.
Sometimes, when I'm not all that smart, I might ask them that very question. I don't recall, off hand, ever getting an answer.
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I am going to adamantly disagree with you on one point. I think putting your flag in your back pocket (however deep you say), looks very silly. And it looks a lot worse when officials grab for their flag behind them, only do change their mind. After all we are sales people and when we give the coach one more reason to think we passed on a play for motives that might not be pure, and then we really set ourselves up for more criticism. At the very least if the flag is in your belt that is a lot harder to tell if you are even reaching for your flag because your hands and arms are much more likely to be in front of your body. Reaching back for a flag or when I watch the SEC (ACC and other southern area) Officials reach for their flags and not throw a flag just raises more questions. I would like to keep coaches out of my head as much as possible. When you have to reach behind you at a critical moment just adds to the fact we might have seen a foul and decide for some good reason we passed. I have seen many critical plays where the officials changed their mind (likely rightfully so) and the focus was not on whether it was a foul, but the fact the official changed their mind was the only focus.
I can think of a NCAA game where Northern Illinois was hosting Maryland and NIU beat a ranked Maryland in the final minutes. The wing official reached for his flag on a critical play near the end of the game that could have been DPI or not and was not called. All SportsCenter focused on (and the local media) is the fact the official did not call this foul. Then there was in implication that this was a "homer call" by the officials.
Peace