Communication to get call straight

[Rich]

Originally Posted by bgtg19

Newer officials must have their heads spinning. In other threads, they are being told not to throw their partners under the bus even when they obviously screw up (e.g., calling over and back on a dribbler whose 3-points have obviously not yet crossed the division line). And, here, there are being told to fix a partner's kicked rule, "Period."

I think JR's advice in this thread is the best for all these situations: go to your partner with information, let your partner exercise her/his judgment with this new information, and then live with her/his judgment. This would have worked in the "frustrating" partner thread, too. Go to your partner, ask what he saw, when he says that the dribbler's foot crossed the line, remind him of the rule and then give him an opportunity to be the big man and change his call. If he refuses to change, well, you've done *your* job. The school hired a three-person crew (or a two-person crew) to work the contest, they did not hire you alone and they are not paying you extra to be the crew hero.

And I agree with others who are of the opinion that it matters not whether or not you are the "referee" on the game. Rut's opinion that the referee has the authority to overrule the call in the OP does not have a basis in the rules (as was pointed out by JAR's rules citations).

Hopefully, we do not run into mules (too stubborn to change their call) too often. One thing we can control is our commitment to not becoming that kind of an official. Listen closely to your partner(s) if they come to you with information/wisdom and then make the best call you can, confident and secure that you will have the support of your crew mates.

This is one advantage to having a regular partner or crew. If I come in and tell my partner something like this, he'll say "OK" and change it. He knows I'm not coming unless he's really screwed up.

It's happened once in the past six years where he's kicked a rule -- changing the arrow on an AP throw in when he shouldn't have. We got together and he changed his ruling based on what I said, even though he still wasn't sure himself -- but he knew I wasn't coming unless I was 100% certain and he wasn't certain himself.