Time out if......

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Brad

1)I simply said that some people will get caught up in the letter of the law and focus on that instead of common sense. We call these guys "Rulebook Robbies" -- a friend of mine came up with the name and it means officials that are so caught up in the rules they get lost in the actual game.

2) I don't have a negative attitude towards officials who strive to do it by the book.

1) And where does it say that "we" and your "friends" get to define what "common sense" is? Just because it is your opinion doesn't automatically make that opinion "common sense". That was the point that I was trying to make.

2) If you don't have a negative attitude with officials who strive to do it by the book, then why are intimating that they lack "common sense" and are "Rulebook Robbies if they do so?

Maybe your TASO chapter allows coaches to use that procedure but there are still a lot of associations out there that instruct their officials to go by the rules when granting TO's. I belong to one of 'em. Imo that doesn't mean that all of those associations now lack common sense and are composed of nothing but "Rulebook Robbies", just because you and your friends say so. We sureasheck do try to get our people to have situational awareness and be ready for the quick TO request. But we also follow the same philosophy that BITS so eloquently stated "I'm not the freakin' maitre d'; I don't take reservations for timeouts."

Jeff called the play using his training and experience. And his training and experience tells him that he made the correct and expected call in the area that he officiates in. That's good enough for me, and I sureasheck can't see where he could possibly lack common sense for calling it that way. And...if you want to handle it differently in your area, that's also good enough for me if your way is the expected call there also. I certainly don't think that you would lack "common sense" just because you made the expected call, and your "expected call" happened to be different than my "expected call".

Again Brad, that's just MY opinion......