Quote:
Originally Posted by crosscountry55
Funny you should bring that up. I was at a camp last year where an NFL white hat was a guest speaker. Years ago he officiated basketball but today only does football. He said, rhetorically, "You know, in football we pick up flags all of the time. In basketball you'll sometimes come together on an out-of-bounds call, but why don't you ever come together on fouls?" I have to admit, football seems to be way ahead of us on the issue of information sharing.
Granted our culture isn't going to change overnight, and in football, where the NFL officials to players ratio is 9:22 (ours is 6.6:22 in a three-man crew), more than one set of eyes is typically on the same matchup. But still, our culture is an obstinate one, isn't it?
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The key difference is that on the vast majority of flags in football, the play continues. In basketball, the play stops on our whistle. Every time.
Much more conducive to picking up flags on penalties than it is to try and change a foul. In football players get to keep playing and the play stands if you decide to pick up. As opposed to what would become several inadvertent whistles in basketball. Nobody wants that.
Its a lot of what makes basketball the most difficult sport to officiate IMO. You call a foul, you live and die with it for the most part. We all miss some. You just try to get better, learn from your mistakes, and be as accurate as you can.