Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmc
This may come as a shock to you Rich, but somehow officiating football actually survived (some might even say "thrived") before you came along. Your attitude, related to 40 year officials, might have a tad more credibility if you waited to see if you actually lasted that long first.
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I've got 24 years in this racket. The difference between me and other 24 year officials is that I'm willing to embrace change that's put in place to make us better. When I started as a wing official, we worked well onto the field and tried to stay with or ahead of the play. We worried so much about getting the spot of the ball we missed a ton of stuff around the ball carrier. It's so much easier for us now to work (1) off the field and (2) slightly behind the play (and rely on cross-field mechanics rather than staying even with the football) that it's a wonder people didn't think of it before.
Good officials evolve. Those that don't or won't evolve should get out of the way. They *certainly* shouldn't be setting policy with respect to mechanics and then tell other people that's the only right way to work.
(I managed to write 2 full paragraphs and only used one comma. I'll try harder next time.)