Maybe others can learn my lesson the easy way

[Brad]

Whether or not that procedure is "fair" usually depends on which color uniform you wear. But it is still a good idea to go with what the rule book says, regardless of how "fair" it seems. At that point you have already made a mistake, best not to double it by trying to make up for the initial inadvertant whistle.

I understand what you are saying -- and you make very valid points. However, I still think that I would NOT do what I did next time.

At certain points in our career we encounter situations like this -- sometimes we have to do what is "right". It's happened to many officials, especially at the higher levels. I don't think that this means setting aside rules on a regular basis, or even in general. But sometimes I think that we'll have situations which call for a little injection of common sense versus being a black-and-white official.

I'll give you an example -- a veteran NCAA official (I'll exclude the name to protect the innocent, but you'd know who he was) talked about a D1 game that he had in which the teams were being very aggressive and physical. After several fouls/hard fouls/etc. he actually stopped the game and sent both teams to their benches.

He told the coaches that this was a "cool down" timeout and that they should come out with a "different" game.

Is that within the rules, not hardly. However, it worked.

Can you do that in every game? Of course not, and I think that this is the only time it happened to him, but it's an interesting story and makes a good point.