Not playing by the rules

[just another ref]

Originally posted by A Pennsylvania Coach
He said that I wasn't playing by the rules, which further irritated me. I asked what he meant, and he said that I was stalling and we both knew it. I agreed, and told him I wasn't breaking any rules. If he'd have said I was a jerk for stalling, I'd agree with that. But when he said I wasn't playing by the rules, well, that burns me up.

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If this is your worst crime, then in my opinion you are a pretty good guy. The word "stalling" is a harsh-sounding term. One could say that you were trying to "slow the game
down." Certainly there are legitimate reasons for this, to break the other team's momentum, to give your team a breather, etc. If none of these apply in this case, and looking back on it you feel that you were just making a show because there was nothing else you could do, then learn from it and move on. I don't feel that it was appropriate for the official to scold you in any way under these circumstances. Also, even if you agree with it now, if he had called you a jerk for stalling at the time, I suspect it would have made matters even worse.