Angry Coach at Halftime

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by LDUB

Let's say the officials have to walk through the team's locker room to get to their dressing room. At halftime a team member in the locker room verbally abuses one of the officials as he walks by. Are you saying this is not a T as it was in the locker room and the only locker room Ts are those dealing with electronic equipment?

There is a huge difference between a coach and player saying something directly to you as an official (during or after the game BTW) then saying something that may be heard through a wall.

And let us put the electronic equipment thing to bed. I have never seen anyone use or gone into anyone's locker room to find out if they are using such equipment during halftime. And in order to know this, you either would have to walk by a locker room or office this was done in, or you would have to go into their locker room to inspect this action. Not only have I never seen this called, I have never heard of this called. The fact that you have to give an obscure rule to justify giving a T for something overheard, gives more fuel if you ask me to my argument.

As I have said to the "no it all" earlier, you can do whatever you want. But in my opinion if you have to find obscure rulings to unrelated situations to justify your actions, you have the right to do so. Do not let me stop you from doing what you feel is right. Then again, you will have to deal with the consequences of your "ruling" and how you are perceived by much more than the coach, but maybe your assignor, the administration or association because you used a rule that people do not agree across the board. When you have this much disagreement here, do not assume that you will not have people have similar disagreements with your actions. At least in my position, I do not see anything clear that says this is what is wanted. You are not creating a situation where you seem to know this is the appropriate action. And if the NF or any other jurisdiction wants this penalized, they can add the language to the rule or ruling that makes it clear this is unacceptable (like they do often with other actions by players and coaches).

Peace