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Originally Posted by JRutledge
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.
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My thoughts exactly.
I've seen other guys blistered by coaches: "You saw that hold. I know you did! You were going to flag it! Why didn't you flag it?! I know you saw it?!"
Cute comebacks or glib answers -- even the iron-willed ability to ignore them -- don't make up for the fact a problem was caused where it didn 't need to be. I can grab and release a flag every play and no one in the stadium knows.
As to whether the ball is white or yellow, I could not possibly care less. I have both (bought the white one to see what the fuss was about) and I don't think it affects my appearance one bit. 10 yaers ago I had never heard of this being an issue, and other than other officials, not one person -- coach, player, parent or fence shaker has ever said the first word about the color of my flag.