I don't think I'm confusing anything. I know what I have control over. In fact, one of my favorite sayings when I get some line from a coach or parent is "I can't control your players. I can only control the game."

It seems like we are getting away from the fact that these officials didn't do a good job of calling these plays. None of them even had the awareness to discuss upgrading any of these fouls to intentional or flagrant. IMO and experience, there are boards/units/associations out there who have clueless "veterans" working games like this every night. Sad.

I also agree about the possibility to get sued. That is the society we are in.

True. But there's a distinct difference between getting sued (which can happen to you any time you get out of bed) and being in a position where you can actually be sued successfully.

Yes...I have officiated at this school numerous times over the years.

Yes...I know the officials on this crew.

Yes...there is a lot of publicity, about this game, going around here locally and nationally.

Yes...I have been assigned this school this Friday night as Visitors at another school. (On a 3 whistle crew...I am the R. One of the officials on "the YouTube game" will be on the crew as well.)

No...I have no comment at this time.

sidenote: Today's paper shows this school is 0-6.

And simply being sued can be a very costly and devastating encounter even if it is unsuccessful.

True, and I don't think anyone here is arguing that.

Let us know how it goes. I'm pretty interested to read how everything plays out.

Have fun at CB!!

That's not what he is talking about. A good argument can be made that #34 should have been tossed after play #3 in this video. Any injuries he causes after that play would therefore be at least liable for a lawsuit.

Not to mention the very real possibility that such negligence could lead to the first guilty verdict. Whether it's happened before isn't meaningless, but it's not the debate-ending response that fiasco seems to think it is.

Players get injuries all the time in games regardless of whether we call a foul or not. A player can be injured irregardless of whether we call a foul or not. I think we overplay the importance of litigation in these discussions.

Peace

A "good argument" on an Internet message board is completely and absolutely different from a good argument in court. That's what I think you and rockyroad (who is probably right now at the local law library combing through a stack of legal cases a mile high bless his heart) fail to understand.

In your opinion, a case could be made to hold the official(s) in the video liable. That's just your opinion. I've still yet to hear a compelling argument as to how the officials in the video demonstrated recklessness or willfull indifference (not by your standards, but by the court standard).

Not when the injury happens on play #7 at the hands of #34 with plays #1 - #6 preceding them as in this example. At some point, the officials, having not properly addressed the prior plays, will have exposed themselves to more trouble than just losing games.

It may not be enough for criminal conviction, but civil cases have a much lower threshold.

In every situation they called a foul. Now we can debate if a more punitive foul should be called, but we cannot even agree which one of those calls that should apply to. And these are just the calls, not the other situations which would have to be addressed in any court proceeding. Again I think we take the court part too far and almost none of us are lawyers or know what would happen in a hearing, let alone a trial.

Peace

Actually, civil cases still have a pretty high threshold. The plaintiff must prove that the official or officials either acted in a reckless manner and/or willfully ignored a rule that DIRECTLY resulted in the player getting injured. Neither of those things happened in the video in question.

Could a lawsuit be filed? Sure, but I think it's more likely that the potential plaintiff's lawyer would tell their client not to bother. There's just not a case here.