[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Ch1town

I'm sure we're all passing on marginal east/west contact throughout the game, but EOG is different as the Feds acknowledge that fouling is an approved strategy.

The key word is "fouling", not "contact". If you go back and check why the Fed. made that statement, it is in regards to changing philosophy from fouling on purpose at the end of a game should be considered intentional, to fouling at the end of a game is an approved strategy that is part of the game, and it is not intentional just because it's on purpose.

Originally Posted by Ch1town

The official who doesn't oblige the slight contact will often have intentional fouls in their ballgames & perception could be that he/she is ready to go & doesn't want the clock to stop.

Again, the key words are in red. If that slight contact was not judged to be a foul in the 2nd quarter, how can it be a foul in the 4th?

If you go back to Rich's article, he said the officials missed two foul calls, before getting the 3rd. There is a chance that was a case of the officials not being mentally ready at the end of the game, knowing the situation, knowing that the team that was behind will be trying to foul, and therefore being in position to see the first two fouls before the 3rd one happened. Perhaps you are right - they weren't ready to go and just wanted the clock to run. We won't know. But I'm not going to blow the whistle at "slight contact", because I feel that gives the perception the official is being lazy and no longer using their judgement to differentiate between incidental contact and contact that is a foul. They are being lazy by just giving in to any contact. And that is just as bad.

Our antenna should be up at the end of these types of games. We should absolutely be ready to know the score, know the fouls, know the situation. We should be ready to make those same judgements about incidental contact vs. foul, and we should be ready to make them more often, and in different situations than we had earlier in the game. If a team misses their first couple foul attempts, and they end up doing something harder, then we should be ready to make that intentional or flagrant call. It's not our job to accomodate what one team or the other wants to do, it is our job to react to what actually happens. That is not the time to get lazy and simply turn off our judgement because we know what the other team wants to do.

Originally Posted by Ch1town

Officiating is an art that some people get & others don't/won't.

Agreed. I think we all are trying to master that art. A good feel for the game is knowing what can and might happen, and putting yourself in the best position to make the calls that happen (or don't happen).