Letting it get out of control

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Freddy

No, I highly doubt that. My guess is you accomplish the same things in other effective ways. I'd bet you set a good tone for the game by your appearance, professionalism in captains' conference and meeting with the coaches, confidence at the start of the game. Those are also vital, effective ways to accomplish the same thing I was hoping to suggest. And I've seen guys who fit the image I have of you do so very well.
As to the "I like to let the players set the tone", I'd love to see your skills and aptitude on display when the tone they set early on isn't a good one. It's at that point that I've seen officials unable or unwilling to adjust to keep the landslide of chaos from falling in on them. Then again, I bet the way you take care of business carries out what needs to be done to establish the control spoken of in the original post.

This is such a complimentary response to my previous post that I am ashamed. I can only take this opportunity to apologize for my prior crankiness.
While I did disagree with your stated position, I certainly could have phrased my response in a more respectful and hopefully discussion worthy manner. I'll aim for that in the future.
In summary, after about 15 years of doing this, I come down on the side of JR, Rich, and Rut. I believe that we need to allow some contact and not whistle everything in order for the game to flow and be enjoyable for the players and spectators. The stronger players and teams can handle it. The challenge is to recognize when the players are unable to deal with the level of contact that we are accustomed to permitting and to adjust and call those games tighter. I firmly believe that by over-calling the officials can ruin a game very quickly. It takes much longer for an under-called game to get out of control, so if the officials are sharp and can come in with a few timely whistles to keep the tempers in check, then the proper balance can be achieved.