These days I get a bit nervous when I'm in a position other than WH. I work a wing about 10 times a season and umpire at least twice whether I want to or not. I WH the rest of the games.
I had a good reminder last night of how hard it can be to work a wing position. I had coaches complaining from the opening kickoff. They acted like the restricted area was some kind of new thing and when I told the coaches they couldn't be on the field between plays, they looked at me like I had three heads. Combine that with the fact that the whined on every flag and one of them started in with "I'm an official, too" (so I told him that certainly he knew the rule about the restricted area and would he please remind his assistant of the rule) and it was a long game. Oh, I had to keep time, too, since we were on a practice field away from the main stadium. Starting a watch on my left wrist with my arm punched back was hard enough, but I'd forget to start it when I was supposed to and vice versa. I found myself starting and stopping it opposite from what I was supposed to to try to even things up. We probably played an extra five minutes beyond the 40 we had on the clock.
I also saw an amazing phenomenon that shouldn't have surprised me, either. We had a 1st and goal from about 18 inches away and the QB sneaked right in and after he scored the fullback probably gave the runner a shove from behind. The coaches on my side went nuts and I told the coach, "The runner was already in before *anything* happened." He barked something at me and then the WH (who's our BJ on Friday nights) told him the same thing and the coach looked at me and said, "That's a good explanation. Yours wasn't." I shrugged, we said the same thing. But the WH gave him credibility or something. I see that on Fridays when coaches want to talk to me about something they could've easily talked to a wing about. Amazing how they think the WH makes me special. It doesn't, trust me. Except that I can't keep my hats clean like the other guys.
So give me the relative peace and quiet of being the WH and being in the middle anytime.
