I broke my rule recently, talking to fans....

Juco game at a local school, during a timeout I'm walking to the sideline opposite table with the ball. There were a bunch of kids (kids = students) sitting in the front row & one of them catches my eye and says "Hey ref! How about calling a handcheck!" Normally when a fan catches my eye (can't always be avoided) I'll actively ignore them, but this kid caught me by surprise and he had a big smile on his face (maybe I know him??) so I played along - "Handcheck??? What's that, somethin' new?" I said with a wink. Got a big laugh from the folks who heard it :shrug:

And while I'm at it...I broke my rule (again!) at a HS game a few weeks ago. Same sitch, but this time a mom says to me "Hey ref! The scoreboard is wrong!" We already suspected this (operator missed a recent 3 ptr) and my pard was at the table checking it out, so I just gave an exagerated shrug and said "I don't care about the score..." and she says "Oh...what DO you care about?!" to which I answered "I just care that I get out of here before 9 o'clock."

Also in the stands was a fan (obviously a parent) who thought he was part coach, part "color" announcer, part team drill insructor and overall loudmouth obnoxious putz...I gotta tell you, I feel for you coaches out there who have to deal with these types on a daily basis. :rolleyes:

Yup, best to stick to sign language with 'em, Slappy. :D

An official with a good sense of humor can't be bad, but I don't think you helped your profession by saying that you want to "... get out of here before 9 o'clock." There is a perception that since officials are paid by the game, they want to keep things as short as possible. Cynics don't need any fuel for that opinion.

It's not my profession, if it was I would starve to death (although I could stand to lose the weight :( ). More to the point, I tend not to worry if I might have fueled a cynics point of view in my profession, my avocation or my personal life (but I will add the response to my comment was more along the lines of "I hear ya" than it was "d@mn lazy money grubbing refs").

I break the rues every now and then too
 

Its all on the situation. I had a JV game where a player got hacked while driving in for a layup. I called a foul and pointed to the spot for throw in. This very loud voice started yelling "theres continuation in this league" over and over. Later while placing the ball in bounds at side line close to fans, he kept yelling the same thing. Finally I turned slightly and said loud enough for him to hear "there is no continuation in this league".

Of course a few minutes later an airborne shooter got fouled after release and what did I hear..."there's no continuation in this league"...

Everyone just laughed.

Actually, on page 33 of the Mechanics Manual, it states that it's OK to piss off fans.

First off, I can't imagine anyone taking on being an official for the money. There are just too many easier ways to make more money. And, as JR said, p*ssing off the fans is in the Mechanics Manual :) . I might even go so far as to say that it's one of the perks of the job :D ! My point was, as I'm sure you realize, that the fans don't need any more stuff to add to their disrepect of the jobs that you guys/gals do.

I recently took my daughter to watch a D1 women's game, and had to listen to some "fans" yelling at the refs with idiotic comments virtually the entire game. Now these were not simply college kids, these were grown adults who probably had kids in the game. The team of officials did a great job the entire game, but it sure would have been nice for somebody - ANYBODY - to shut these morons up. And we were rooting for the same team that these guys were.