In game pointers...

[SmokeEater]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Geeze, why not go all the way and wear an arrow around your neck on a chain? It just ain't that hard to mentally keep track of the arrow.

Nah, I think the arrow through the head is more appropriate!

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by SmokeEater

Nah, I think the arrow through the head is more appropriate!

Grin

Now I have a question for you. I think that you posted once that you were a fireman. If so, do you feel that your training also gave you an advantage when it came to officiating?

[SmokeEater]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Grin

Now I have a question for you. I think that you posted once that you were a fireman. If so, do you feel that your training also gave you an advantage when it came to officiating?

I can't say that it did. I started officiating when I was in High School way before I even had an incling to become a firefighter. I do think that my confidence is directly related to my ability to effectively do both jobs however.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by SmokeEater

before I even had an incling to become a firefighter.

"Incling". Sounds like a cross between "inkling" and "inclination". Actually, it fits really well.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by SmokeEater

I can't say that it did. I started officiating when I was in High School way before I even had an incling to become a firefighter. I do think that my confidence is directly related to my ability to effectively do both jobs however.

Hmmmmmm........

The reason that I asked is because locally we've had quite a number of fireman and police officers over the years officiate in both football and basketball. A lot of them have athletic backgrounds in those sports and they do have the availability needed to officiate with the shifts that they work.

This is just my own observation, and obviously it doesn't hold true for all of the fireman/cops that officiate. I think that their training is very helpful when to comes to the conflicts inherent in officiating. Fireman/cops are trained not to panic, to stay calm and relaxed, assess the best way to proceed if there's a problem, etc., and they seem (to me,anyway) to be able carry over this training into officiating. That's not true for all of them, of course. They may not be better officials overall, but they do seem better prepared in a lot of instances to deal with the inevitable conflicts.

Note that I'm not or have never been in those vocations. However, the guy that mentored me and put so much time and effort into developing me as an official so many years ago was a cop. Because of that, I may certainly be biased.

PS- I should also mention that I've noticed that one the other main professions that also seems to be related to officiating would be school teaching.

[SmokeEater]

You know when you put it in that context, I also notice that there are a number of police officers/ firefighters officiating here as well (yea School teachers too)
So to answer do I think that my ability to think on the fly and make decisions without panic, to extinguish conflict and keep control over situations is because of my background? Well I think it helps. I believe that these qualities had to be there in order to become a firefighter/police officer (either that or we are just crazy). Finally, have you ever seen an off duty cop or fire monkey not want to be in control of anything? We are Control freaks, when we are in control we are happy other wise we just have ants in our pants to get the control.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by SmokeEater

You know when you put it in that context, I also notice that there are a number of police officers/ firefighters officiating here as well (yea School teachers too)
So to answer do I think that my ability to think on the fly and make decisions without panic, to extinguish conflict and keep control over situations is because of my background? Well I think it helps. I believe that these qualities had to be there in order to become a firefighter/police officer (either that or we are just crazy). Finally, have you ever seen an off duty cop or fire monkey not want to be in control of anything? We are Control freaks, when we are in control we are happy other wise we just have ants in our pants to get the control.

Yup, we are thinking along the same lines.

[fullor30]

JR...............

Good points, I've felt the same about a few guys in my area.

[Stat-Man]

Originally Posted by SmokeEater

Nah, I think the arrow through the head is more appropriate!

I wouldn't mind wearing this at the table.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by SmokeEater

Nah, I think the arrow through the head is more appropriate!

We all had to wear those when I worked the Steve Martin classic. Steve entertained at halftime.