Honestly.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by johnSandlin
JRut,

I understand what you are saying about standing behind what you have already said and/or will say in the future, for I do the samething as well. However, the point I was trying to make is, I would probably not respond to fellow officials the way that you do sometimes. I am a firm believer that things that you say can comeback to haunt you down the road, because it gets back to an assignor you work for, or a crew you work for. I am not saying that I do not defend myself in the world of officiating, but I am saying that I may go about it in a little bit quieter, and less confronting fashion. Also, I know as well that people I talk to in this forum are officials I may never work with as well. However, I look at the world of officiating this way..... We are in this together. Brothers and sisters of officiating, like a family. Then, let us treat each other like a family. Just trying to be helpful and positive. Take care.

John

Well if something I say comes back to "haunt me" (your words not mine) then so be it. If talking about things that officials talk about during association meetings, pregame conferences or any social or banquet that I have attended and someone gets offended, that to me says more about them then me. If all you have to do is raise an issue especially when this is talked about on soooo many different levels (talk radio, between officials, between fans and coaches) and you cannot ask a bunch of people that actually are involved in the sport very deeply, then that is just too bad. And if an assignor that holds deeper views about this who they assign their Boys Varsity and Men's College holds this conversation against me, then I do not want to work for them anyway. I know my place in life and I know my place in officiating. I am not going to wither and die because someone does not want me to officiate something because I made a comment or two. I am an independent contractor, I can work for every I want and who every I want. I already work for too many assignors and schools already. It would not hurt me to cut back on one or two. But I love to officiate in different places so I do it.

I did not curse out anyone. I did not call them names. All I did was voice and express my opinion about an issue that seems to come up everytime I do a game. Because my state has playoffs for both girls and boys held at different times and for the big and small schools separate, this tends to be a constant issue. I am so sorry that most of you are required to have your playoffs to have a boys then a girls game all the way to the finals. Here we do not, and especially when the playoff assignments are given, you always have this issue raised. Then it turns into who does what level and why?

If any of my comments offended people, that is unfortunate, but I am not going to lose sleep over it. And I am surely not going to stop telling people what I think. If you do not like it, do not read it. My life and your life will go on. Believe that. I guess it is a Midwestern thing and city thang. Most people I know around here always voice their opinion, and we then get over it.

Peace