Coach appears to headbutt official

[Smitty]

Originally Posted by Adam

Frankly, he didn't have time. Your advice here would have to be applied virtually in every single close game where a coach might have a call go against him. Most of will work 20+ years, calling hundreds of technical fouls on emotional coaches and never have a single coach even consider this sort of assault.

You're talking about self-defense and situational awareness stuff that most will never need. It's good advice, but it would prevent us from getting close to a coach for a quiet discussion.

Had this official done something to escalate the situation, I could see addressing that.

Piling on to that answer, I do believe that the T was coming in to be a barrier between the coach and the L. Which is something I might have done under the same situation. And is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. If he hadn't, then the coach may have had a clear path to the L, who had his back to the coach at that point and may have received a head-butt to the back of his head, which may have been a much worse outcome. I don't think it's realistic that I, as a ref, should ever have to be concerned with my proximity to a coach. If that day comes, it will probably be time to hang it up. We don't get paid enough for that. The only time I have ever worried about being near anyone is after a fight has already broken out - I'm looking to be several feet away from anyone. But that's an entirely different situation.

[Eastshire]

Originally Posted by Smitty

Piling on to that answer, I do believe that the T was coming in to be a barrier between the coach and the L. Which is something I might have done under the same situation. And is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. If he hadn't, then the coach may have had a clear path to the L, who had his back to the coach at that point and may have received a head-butt to the back of his head, which may have been a much worse outcome. I don't think it's realistic that I, as a ref, should ever have to be concerned with my proximity to a coach. If that day comes, it will probably be time to hang it up. We don't get paid enough for that. The only time I have ever worried about being near anyone is after a fight has already broken out - I'm looking to be several feet away from anyone. But that's an entirely different situation.

That day is here or we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[Smitty]

Originally Posted by Eastshire

That day is here or we wouldn't be having this discussion.

This was (thankfully) still an edge case. It is not a common occurrence, nor is it something that makes me worry. Yet.

It's no less likely than someone in the stands taking out a gun and shooting at people, but I can't worry about that happening either.