...so I ran him...

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Real world officiating does not work like that. We make all kinds of judgments based on other factors. If you were not calling fouls because there were outside pressures insisting you do so, that is not something most of us can say from here. In most situations I would never let some things go because of time frame, but you were working a 7th grade boys game that are not always the most well played games around. I do not have a major problem with your approach because most of us have been in a similar situation and I seriously doubt they pitched too much of a fit over it.

Thank you for seeing past the rhetoric. I get the feeling maybe I just didn't explain the situation very well. Good grief, we didn't pass on anything important, and we certainly didn't favor one team or the other. We called what needed to be called, but there were just tons and tons of little bumps, unskilled arm knocks, jostles, stumbles, travels that may or may not have been caused by marginal contact, the usual low-level 7th grade stuff. Would I have called it tighter if left to myself? Yes. But I also understand the need for "real world pressures" as you say, Jeff, to be considered. If it had been a school game instead of a rec league thing, and I'd have called it my way, it would have taken two and a half hours, or more. We called it pretty tight in the first half, and they just weren't learning. So we just started letting a lot of the A/D borderline stuff go. I can't see how that's selling my soul for a mess of pottage.