Quote:
Originally Posted by M&M Guy
Anyway, I have not yet heard this directly from a coach. I have heard it in the context of camps, and clinicians mentioning it in terms of officials needing to do our best when working at the college level.
So, in this case, the coach is effectively saying, "You are only officiating as a hobby. I do this for a living, and it's a crying shame my livelyhood has to depend on someone else's hobby." Isn't that the same thing as saying, "You don't put in the same time and effort I do, and because of that, I'm going to get screwed."?
Maybe I'm just grumpy on a Monday, but what other reason is there for a coach to say something like that other than to diminish our efforts? Perhaps even to say we are cheating somehow, or at least it's obviously not as important to us, because it's our hobby rather than our job? Can anyone tell me a legitimate reason as to why a coach would inform us of this useful bit of information? Would they also be willing to supply us with the details of their salary and bonus info from their contract as well, so we can verify it's really their livelyhood? 
It just smacks of a creative way to say "I'm better than you; you're not as important as me." It's certainly not game-related in any way, and probably should be dealt with accordingly. |
It's simply an extension of phrases I've heard at camps:
It's the kids game, not ours.
It's the coach's livelihood, not ours.
And these words are coming from people who are officials and are teaching officials. Personally, I think those statements and those feelings are crap. I won't even begin to pretend that my role matches the role of the coaches or players, but minimizing what we do out there and how important it is for us to have passion for officiating and to take our role seriously doesn't help our avocation, IMO.