Or better yet, the reporter was either lying or did not if a foul was called on this particular play or not. You cannot trust small town reporters just because they claim something to be true. There is a reason they are small town reporters and if they had any ability or knowledge, they probably would be covering something else.

Peace

Are you saying small towns aren't as important....

;)

You can tell that Rut is from Chicago (or a place like that) when a city of 250K people (and a metro area of 500K people) is considered a "small town."

That's the serious thought I had at the time. Personally, I like that size. Big enough to have everything you need, yet not unmanageable. And in my case, there's an NFL team within an hour's drive to boot.

Actually I am from a town of 10-20 thousand people. And small town papers in my state would be considered Peoria or Springfield (two of the largest cities outside of the Chicago area) which has much more people then where I grew up. And those papers tend to have very bias or slanted toward the covering schools more than a Chicago area paper that covers over 100 schools. I still read papers from the smaller towns (smaller than the two towns I just listed) and the coverage and opinions tend to be rather different when a small town paper is covering a game. In the media world, most people want to work in bigger markets because that means more money and more prestige, not much different as to how officials want to work in certain places as well. As a matter of fact, I am not in Chicago area right now. I am in my home town where I have worked at many smaller schools this past week and the coverage is completely different than a Chicago or Suburban paper.

Peace

I used to work in the league the writer is talking about in the Madison, WI Metro area but quit because of the assigner. This conference (Big Eight) has lost most of its good officials since the new assigner took over 3 years ago. The problem is not the 3 person system it is that the assigner has guys working varsity games that struggle with freshman games. If you put bad/inexperienced officials in a system they don't know very well they are going to struggle and it hurts everyone.

From this idiot's blog....

"but there was no whistle for the obvious foul and no opportunity for a 3-point play (click on the photo to enlarge it and check out the fan's reaction in the background to the play)."

There is no possible way for a fan to react to a no-call at this point.

I sent an e-mail to this clown and asked him to admit and correct his own mistakes in this blog story.....

the crickets are still chirping.......

Do I resemble this remark?

(The rest of my comment is being sent via private message.)

I'm puzzled by his ability to pinpoint EXACTLY when the play in question occurred -- unless it was clear it was at the end of the game. As stated, there is no way to know for sure what the fan was reacting to and its doubtful that she could react fast enough (not to mention all knowing enough) in that pic to know 1) it was a foul and 2) the officials weren't going to call that foul at any time.

I guess it comes down to the old saying... "opinions are like a$$holes, everybody's got one."

Rich, I hope you invite/challenge this guy to come and call a season's worth of games and then he "may" be able to write an informed article on what it takes to be an official.

You neglected the corollary: "... and most of them are full of crap."

Actually, I usually enjoy what this guy writes. But he couldn't be more in left field on this one. Like another poster on this thread, I have an idea what he's seeing, but it has nothing, NOTHING to do with 3 versus 2.

That was part of my point about the small town paper or media.

Last spring there was a report written about how officials were not doing their jobs properly. And instead of just quoting coaches and taking their word for their feeling, the reporting contacted the IHSA directly and at least got quotes from many sources and entities in the report. This guy did not even investigate the differences between 2 and 3 from prominent people as to if these things he was complaining about had anything to do with the 3 Person system. To me the standards of journalism were lacking.

And this is what I have seen all my life with the papers I grew up with when it comes to informational pieces from media members.

Peace

Even in national or big city media columnists will rip the officiating without trying to look at all sides of the story. We're easy targets.

I did not say they wouldn't. The article I was referencing (and posted last year BTW) was ripping officiating, but at least did some research on the subject with the higher ups. I bet this guy never asked anyone from the Wisconsin offices or an assignor as to what the problem is about the 3 Person system. He might have gotten some information about a transition period or that many officials are not as experienced to cover those games at this time. There was more information by a person commenting on the subject than there was from the person who wrote the article.

Peace