Call Consistency as a Crew

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I don't follow this at all.

Then I'll explain. And I'll use small words so that you'll be sure to understand, you warthog-faced buffoon.

(That's a joke. From the movie The Princess Bride. I'm just kidding. I don't really think you're warthog-faced. That was a joke, too. )

In the first place, the expression "too close to call" doesn't work. There is no play that's too close to call. We have to make a call.

Of course you have to make a call. But as someone else mentioned, how many times have we seen plays on video, watched them a dozen times -- in slow motion, and still we can't come to a consensus on them? There are these plays that you literally can't tell with any certainty whether they are block or charge. And there are many more of them that happen in real time. Once we see video, you can usually tell. But in real time, sometimes it's nearly impossible to be certain of the call. These are the calls we're talking about. There aren't 100 per game, but there might be 3 or 4 if you're officiating very fast, aggressive players.

If you do have multiple plays in a game that are that close, there is no right and wrong, it depends on who you ask.

Of course there's right or wrong. It's either a block or a charge. The problem is we can't be certain of which it is. What we can be certain of, is making sure that we call those plays the same way as a crew.

Whether the last call was yours or your partner's, you must try to get this one right, and what the last call was has no part in the equation.

Sigh. Of course you want to get it right. We all want to nail that call. And if it's clearly one or the other, that's what you're going to call. But if it's so close that you just can't be sure, the last call is a great reference.