hardest call in the game?

[Mark Padgett]

For me, the toughest call in the game is the first foul call I make. Here's why: I know that with that first foul call, I am setting the level of contact I will use the rest of the game as a guideline for calling all the rest of the fouls. Certainly, the first one may be a really hard foul and will be obvious, but much more often, it's a "normal" foul. I have to make sure I haven't "set the bar" too low or too high.

This calls importance is magnified by the fact that I make the same call the same way from the beginning of the game until the end of the game regardless of how close the game is at the end. If you are the type (and we all know there are a lot of you) who require more contact at the end of a close game for a foul than you have required up until that point, then I guess deciding when to call a foul in the last minute is the hardest for you. For me, it's the easiest because I have an entire game of precedence to use by that time.