Dealing with Bias

[Mark Padgett]

Juulie - we discussed this last night at our games and I thought I would share with the others what I said. After you do a whole dumpload of games, your calls become instinctive. You aren't even thinking of who the players or teams are, you just see a foul or violation and the whistle goes off and your arm goes up.

As to your comments about calling ticky tack fouls on teams that are up 40 and pressing (or any similar situation) - remember that your job as an official is not to "level the playing field", but to call the game evenly both ways. The rules are there to give each team an equal opportunity to win and the team that plays the best should win if you've done your job properly. That's how it should be - that's their reward for playing better than the other team - they get to win.

Just keep working on it and it will come eventually.

If you think this means I have a "cold-hearted" approach to officiating - thank you.