Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeStrybel
Jeff, I am not and I don't believe anyone else here is suggesting that soccer is taking over the nation. Youth soccer, especially U12, is extremely popular in America though. You and I both know that baseball is declining in popularity as a high school sport. Yet, we still have more games than umpires some days. It is unfair to judge the popularity of athletics by the number of officials available. Baseball is still alive and well in Illinois, as it is elsewhere. Football may be more exciting and attractive to some, but kids, young and old, still get wide eyed when Spring arrives at the diamond. That is why I contend that the influence of tobacco use by the game's elite has bearing. My 11 year old may not want to chew because of it but others might. The risks of prolonged use are known and it is probably time to ask them to stop dipping. Once upon a time players could openly smoke cigarettes in the dugout. The outcry was noted and the game moved on.
I hope your games went smoothly this past weekend. Our playoffs start next week and we face a team that killed us earlier this season. Should be interesting.
|
I would've thought the habit would've died off when they banned chew in the minor leagues. I guess not. It's time the players union give in on this one. At least the teams don't provide the chew anymore.
I've chewed a handful of times over 20 years ago. Idiotic thing to do and I'm glad I never got hooked on that or cigarettes (I've probably smoked less than a pack in my life, always after a night of drinking). I have my weaknesses, but I'm glad these aren't part of them.
I know that having enough football officials down the road is a concern. We used 112 crews in the playoffs this past week (that's 560 officials). That's fewer crews than on a typical Friday night in Wisconsin, when most teams play. My crew is a playoff crew that had off this past weekend (we work next week where the demand is down to 56 crews and halves to 28 and then 14 for weeks 3 and 4). It's the Friday nights during the season that are hard to fill. A lot of crews are carrying officials that probably aren't ready for varsity or playoff work.
The difference between football and football (sorry, soccer) is that we use at least 4 on most youth games through sub varsity, 5 on varsity, and 7 on college. Soccer uses one certified ref and maybe, if lucky, a certified person to work the lines. There may be a lot of games, but there are a lot of younger kids working even younger kids games. One thing soccer seems to do pretty well is develop kids to be officials at some point, even while they are still players. We don't do that, even with youth football, which I think is a mistake.