Foul without contact?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Rich

I'm not that good. Sometimes I have to put an educated guess on a play. Especially when I'm working 2-man.

There are times when a player goes to the floor and I'm 95% sure that he was tripped or someone stepped on his heel but I couldn't swear under oath that I *saw* foot touch heel. Hasn't stopped me from putting a whistle on it and I haven't been wrong yet when I have.

I rarely work 2 man, so this is not much of an issue for me in "real" games. And even when I have worked 2 man, I do everything to get in position. But the situation that JAR describes sounds rather unlikely. I have also seen enough of games where a player acts more like they were contacted and did not get contacted at all. So from the educated guess part, I tend to not "guess" if I did not see anything that looks like contact. If that makes me a bad official then I will just be a bad official. But I like to call what I see, not what I completely guess on. Or I need to move to improve my angles. I do it often, it is not terribly hard and when it becomes very hard I will quit. And I am not saying I am always in the great position, just stating that I do not want to guess. I am like many that kick myself for missing things or not seeing the entire play, but I can tell you when I see myself on tape that is not very common.

Peace