1st 'T', a complement, and a question

[Rookie]

Chuck, unfortantly not all refs have such black and white rules for give a T.

[Hawks Coach]

Chuck
I see more clearly where you are coming from and I don't think you are arrogant. And I don't doubt that you call perfectly clear Ts. I still doubt that, if you enforce all T rules (even calling only what you feel you absolutely must) all players know every way they can get whacked - but I will even grant you that assumption for this discussion.

As pointed out above, your high standards for a T may not always be true of all refs, all the time. So pretend you are me. You ask the ref what the T was for and he blows you off. You ask your player what happened and he says, "I dunno, I said something to Johney about the stupid pass he made and the ref Td me up?!" My conclusion is that you were too fast with the whistle and that's why you won't tell me what my player did - my player really did nothing. Now I have zero respect for you because you are behaving arrogant and I am sympathetic to my player. Little to my knowledge, this is really Chuck E and the call was quite clear and the player quite wrong. But I don't have a whole lot to work with here and zero independent knowledge. And lest you think players won't lie about it, one of my former players was accused by three different teams of cursing at their players, but she never did anything in her mind. Considering I have never had this accusation against any other player, this was an obvious preponerance of evidence. A single T may not be so obvious.

Now if you tell me one thing ("he cursed at me"), my player tells me another, I'll probably approach you after the game, tell you what my player said, and confirm that you were sure of what he did/said. And I would always be non-confrontational, because I really just want to know what my players are doing so that I can police it.

The reason I have made such a point of this is I don't usually (ever as far as I can remember) ask for clarification of the traveling or b/c calls refs make - those calls are usually obvious and always judgment, so I really don't care too much to know why you called what you called. If you kept making the same call and my players and I couldn't fathom why, I guess I might ask, but otherwise never. These were the kind of calls you indicated might require explanation to me. In my opinion, coaches that ask for explanations of these usually (not always) are just engaging in a more subtle dissent or looking for an opening to complain.

On the other hand, I have on numerous occasions asked why a T is assessed because it is frequently something I can't see/hear. I would say about half the Ts that I have seen issued I asked why, because from where I was it wasn't obvious and I sincerely wanted to know. Depending on the reason, I may pull the player immediately, and they may sit the rest of the game if they went far enough in my book. And no ref has ever refused to tell me the basic reason for any technical, and that has always satisfied me. I am never a jerk about it, and I haven't yet had to ask why I got Td up - never happened!

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by Hawks Coach
As pointed out above, your high standards for a T may not always be true of all refs, all the time.

As I said Coach, this approach is my personal preference. It's worked well for me, and I've never had a coach complain that I was "blowing him off". Perhaps this approach would not work for another official. If not, then he/she shouldn't use it.

Now if you tell me one thing ("he cursed at me"), my player tells me another, I'll probably approach you after the game, tell you what my player said, and confirm that you were sure of what he did/said. And I would always be non-confrontational, because I really just want to know what my players are doing so that I can police it.

If the kid doesn't tell you what he said, then you'll probably approach me after the game anyway (if you can find me ). So what difference does it really make if I say "Ask him, Coach" or if I say "He cursed, Coach". Either way, if you find the player's answer unsatisfactory, you will want to seek me out. (By the way, I don't think I would have a problem with that, as it has happened to me in the past.) So why add an extra layer of discussion to a possibly heated situation?

Bottom line, it works for me. Sorry to have stirred the pot so much with this.

Chuck

[Hawks Coach]

Chuck
No problem. I don't think you stirred the pot so much as stirred some good thought on my part anyway. Thanks.

[Peter Devana]

If it 's obvious -no explanation- if it's not obvious such as trash talk , or comments to you etc give short loud explanation to scorer that everyone can hear( ie TECHNICAL FOUL- WHITE # 12 - TRASH TALK !!!
That approach has always worked for me.
Pistol