Officiating other sports

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Amesman

Did not realize this (not disputing it, just didn't realize).

I always figured that, sure, while you have to be on your feet and move, it's probably not as much wear and tear as basketball officiating but wasn't sure on the decision-making.

Football rules are the hardest because every rule and application has a specific course of action based on many factors. People think officials in football get together to pick up flags, when actually we are trying to make sure we share all the facts to get a play right. For example if we have a penalty, thinks like did the ball go out of bounds, incomplete pass, first down, live ball, dead ball, score made can all change the enforcement. If you do not recognize the right situation, you will screw up the rule completely. And even though those rules are hard, you can lean on each other to get things right and you have to lean on each other as your penalty might not have anything to do with other actions on the field. A lot of football officials also try to lean on the Referee to make most of these decisions as well. Which is a recipe for trouble, but you can get away with this a lot of the time. The problem is everyone on a football crew needs to know the rules because they might be the one that saves the crew from disaster. This is partially why I feel basketball is harder, because I cannot lean on other officials to get plays right that I call.