How involved should you become

[footlocker]

Mick/JR,

I completely agree here. It takes courage to call a game consistently without regard to the score, relationships with the coaches, fans, school, or game situation. Good officials will see the game exactly as it occurs and make calls irrespective of these circumstances. As officials our honesty is above reproach and those in our profession with the best reputations are not affected by the pressure or intimidation of fans, coaches, or score.

This is what I strive to do each and every game. I have not always been perfect but I do know that this is the goal. I believe that there will always be jeffpeas out there building a reputation for officials. We deal with “make-up calls,” “uneven foul counts” and yes, “helping the losing team.” Most people with two cents know that not all baseball players take steroids, not all college athletes rape women, and not all officials compromise their profession. (And those without two cents I don’t waste time considering.) It takes bravery to judge every call on its own merit. As for jeffpea, I hope that I never have to partner up that direction.

[jeffpea]

HawkCoach -- If you re-read my previous posts, you'll easily see that I am not advocating changing ALL of my calls during a game....I'm talking about the close calls; the ones that could go either way - the out-of-bounds, traveling, hand-check, block/charge, etc.

Why does it seem that a fairly large number of people who post on this board take a viewpoint or opinion to the extreme? OF COURSE you can't change EVERY CALL.........

[jeffpea]

Judgement is EXACTLY what you use in situations that I've described above......

"In my judgement, the ball probably went off A1, but B1 was very close to it and had a hand in there, I'll award it to team A."

"In my judgement, B2 shuffled his feet enough for me to call traveling - even though I might not have called that in a close game."

"In my judgement, A1 had enough possession of the ball as he was falling out of bounds that I'll grant his time-out request."

You can scream "judgement, judgement, judgement" all you want when people blow the whistle, but judgement is what determines IF you blow the whistle. Did you know that, of the officials that were assigned to the NBA Playoffs last season, they graded out as being correct (at least) 94+% of the time they blew the whistle? That's a pretty good percentage; but what about when they didn't blow the whistle? Judgement!

That's the basis of my whole premise. I, and other officials, will "kill the loser with kindness" in lopsided games and can do so in a manner that does not affect the outcome of the game, is not blatantly obvious, and prevents an already poor situation from becoming worse. This can be acheived by blowing the whistle OR passing on calls for both teams................

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by jeffpea
HawkCoach -- If you re-read my previous posts, you'll easily see that I am not advocating changing ALL of my calls during a game....I'm talking about the close calls; the ones that could go either way - the out-of-bounds, traveling, hand-check, block/charge, etc.

Yup, the ones that could go "either way" are now gonna always go "one way". To the team that's behind. Heckuva philosophy, Jeff.

I'm still concerned that your goal is not to go out and call each and every game like you see it. Your officiating is going to change based on the situation and you in some cases are going to punish the winning team's subs that might be in a game because you feel bad for the losing team. I know I have not always been the biggest supporter of officials on this board, but I must say that from the posts of Mick and others that attempt to call the game as they see it from the jump ball to the last buzzer, those are the officials I would be honored to have working my game. Just my two cents.

[footlocker]

Jeff,

Let me put it another way. Your admitting that there are certain game situations that can result in you giving a close/difficult call to a team that is losing. You think this is ok and are going out of your way to defend this.

This is a dangerous slippery slope my friend. If you are willing to force a close call one direction what is going to happen when there is a coach that has been on your back, in a close game, and now you have a close out of bounds or block/charge call. What are you going to do?

You going to try and convince me that you'll call it the way you see it?

[canuckrefguy]

You guys are being WAY too hard on Jeff.

Equating his position with some kind of gross lack of integrity or impartiality is just plain stupid. Really. Frankly, I'm surprised that certain "senior members" are so quick to dismiss him.

If I have a massive blowout, 30-40 points, and a team who's still playing its top 7 players, pressing, acting as though the only way to win is to win by 70, I have three goals: keep everyone safe (call the blatant fouls), keep the clock moving (pass on a few more calls), and keep the peace (make sure the team that's up isn't being a bunch of jackasses, make sure the team that's down doesn't go off the rails).

So this means the odd close OOB call goes to our poor team who's down by 40. So maybe the odd borderline shooting foul gets passed on. So maybe the down team gets away with a few travels. So sue me.

Had a game on the weekend where one team was up by 50 - and not because they were running it up, but because the other team was so bad. I passed on a shooting foul, kid kind of complains. Coach says (I quote) "Oh be quiet, we're up by a bunch, we don't need that call. Shut up and play." Bless his heart.

Get off the high horse. This is not what you're making it out to be. Sheesh, get over yourselves.

Hell, the fact that you're all agreeing with BballCoach should be proof enough that you're out to lunch on this one.

[blindzebra]

The many times at camps where we are told by the big time
officials(college and NBA)that if you have a close one,dual touch it goes to the team down 20,or the visiting
team.

Other so called fundamentals,that I've heard:

If there is contact on the sideline and the ball goes out it goes to the team that received the contact,but no need to call a foul.

Up fake then contact is always a shooting foul.

Offensive player that turns with the ball and is surprised by the defender,call the travel before a PC foul.

Officials that call a lot of travels and 3 second calls
are not very good officials.

Any official that says that they don't adjust how they call the game from level to level(5th graders vs varsity),
skill level of players in the game,importance of game,history of the game(big rivalry),closeness of game, flow of game,etc...is not being very truthful.

Any in all of those things do factor into our decision making,even if you are calling each play on it's own merit,
no call exists in a vacuum.It is part of the game as a whole and like it or not everything you have gathered during that game will go into that call in the 4th quarter
of that 40 point blow out.

[canuckrefguy]

Thanks, zebra - great vision for a "blind" one.

You nailed it.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by canuckrefguy


Get off the high horse. This is not what you're making it out to be. Sheesh, get over yourselves.

Hell, the fact that you're all agreeing with BballCoach should be proof enough that you're out to lunch on this one.

Where in the hell do you get off telling me what my opinion should be. Also "sheesh, get over yourselves" and "out to lunch"? How about this one, Canuckrefguy? Screw you!

I can read. I know exactly what Jeff is advocating. And it isn't making the odd call in favor of the team that is down. It's making every close call in that team's favor, whether the call is correct or not. Well, I won't deliberately make a wrong call, or favor one team over another. If you want to, then you do exactly what I told Jeff to do. Be my guest.

[mplagrow]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

Where in the hell do you get off telling me what my opinion should be. Also "sheesh, get over yourselves" and "out to lunch"? How about this one, Canuckrefguy? Screw you!

JR, it's not healthy to bottle up your feelings this way. Tell us what you REALLY think!

[mick]

Originally posted by blindzebra
It is part of the game as a whole and like it or not everything you have gathered during that game will go into that call in the 4th quarter
of that 40 point blow out.

It is part of the officiating career as a whole, and like it or not, everything you have gathered during that career will go into that one call in the 4th quarter of that 40 point blow out.

[footlocker]

Originally posted by canuckrefguy
If I have a massive blowout, 30-40 points, and a team who's still playing its top 7 players, pressing, acting as though the only way to win is to win by 70, I have three goals: keep everyone safe (call the blatant fouls), keep the clock moving (pass on a few more calls), and keep the peace (make sure the team that's up isn't being a bunch of jackasses, make sure the team that's down doesn't go off the rails).

Agree with you here. I made a similar post very early on in this thread. Game management is paramount in a blowout like this.

Originally posted by canuckrefguy
You guys are being WAY too hard on Jeff.

Equating his position with some kind of gross lack of integrity or impartiality is just plain stupid. Really. Frankly, I'm surprised that certain "senior members" are so quick to dismiss him.

Oh really. I don't advocate making pity calls for a particular team just because they are not good. That is not game management. Game management would be applying the same rules to both teams equally. Let things go at both ends but get the worthy fouls and apply the rules equally. That is still good game management.

If you think I am being too harsh on Jeff. Then, “Jeff, I’m sorry. I am not more holy than you. We have different philosophies.” If your big brother thinks I need to add anything to that I’m sure he’ll let me know.

[Bart Tyson]

Hell, the fact that you're all agreeing with BballCoach should be proof enough that you're out to lunch on this one. [/B]

Thats funny, and scary.

[blindzebra]

Originally posted by mick

It is part of the officiating career as a whole, and like it or not, everything you have gathered during that career will go into that one call in the 4th quarter of that 40 point blow out.

I agree,in fact,I almost used career in my post.That emphasizes my point.We develop philosophies as we get experience.That all goes into EVERY call we make.