"You Don't Say!"
 

Lake Superior State University annually publishes its list of words and phrases they figure should be banned from the English language. "Polar Vortex"..."Hack"..."Skill-Set"..."Polar Vortex" -- all qualified for suggested censorship for 2015, amongst others you're probably sick of, too.

What words and phrases all-too-commonly used/misused by fellow officials, coaches, players, fans would you like to see banned this year?

I'll Start
 

Officials: "In my game, . . ."

For the kids

"In my little corner"

Definite knowledge. As you can not have definite knowledge of a continuous variable at any time other than when the clock is initially set.

Even if you have a count that is not definite knowledge of the exact time. Even if you seen the clock at 31.8 doesn't mean it wasn't 31.84.

Officials have different personalities and different ways of handling situations, and as long as an official stays within the rules, there's nothing wrong with having different opinions on how things should be handled.

Some of mine...

"Over the back"
"Offensive foul"
"He wasn't set"
"He gets two steps"
"I can't make that call, coach, that's not my area"

Absolutely right. Anytime I see that we mainly do this "for the kids" my eyes involuntarily roll.

"He's just defending his guys."

"75% of these plays are blocks."

You seem to not understand the difference of definite and accurate/exact. You can very much have definite knowledge of a continuous variable but it may not be precise or accurate. We only are required to have definite knowledge, not accurate/exact knowledge.

Did you get to 4 on three different 5 counts? You definitely did regardless of how accurate that counts are.

Coaches: "Get him off!"

Players: "I was boxing out!"

Officials during captains' conference: "[Color] talk to [color], white talk to white." I think that's perhaps the most useless utterance in our profession.

"I was talking to my players..."

"Who will be the speaking captain?"

"On the floor!"

"And 1!"

I know it's a different sport, but with all the Bowl games this time of year...I want to scream every time I hear one of these color commentators say:

"He dialed up..." followed by anything - a blitz, a long pass, a screen, whatever.

The phrase from a coach or player that should be punished with being slowly roasted over a fire is: "CALL IT BOTH WAYS".

Definition of definite.
1.
clearly defined or determined; not vague or general; fixed; precise; exact:
a definite quantity; definite directions.

I understand your point and I have no trouble with if you are at a 4 count being able to take 4 seconds off the clock even though 4 is an approximation. I feel that definite is not the correct term. You do have a definite count but not definite knowledge of how much time to take off. It is just semantics however I feel it could be worded better

Redundant redundancy
 

Phrases such as, "there are 2 minutes left, to go, in the fourth quarter, of the game . . ."
How many times does an announcer need to say the same thing, in the same sentence? Duuhhhhh . . .

No kidding, not 30 seconds after I read this, an announcer for the Outback bowl said, "He dialed up a trick play and Wisconsin snuffed it out." You're right, that is a ridiculously overused phrase.

"over the back foul"
"reaching foul"
"baseline" (unless you're talking about the backboard)

My all time, least favorite over-used phrase is 'Step Up.'

Lebron is injured and his replacement needs to 'step up' and replace him.

The Land Of Steady Habits ...
 

In my little corner of Connecticut, we seldom use this phrase.

+ infinity

Maybe not by Webster's but by the rule book definition it is.

I cannot stand that crap either.

Peace

I am surprised the LSSU would want to ban the term "polar vortex" since is it a scientific term that describes an actual meteorological phenomenon that was discovered over 150 years ago. Banning the term "polar vortex" is like structural and mechanical engineers banning the terms "shear" and "shear diagram".

MTD, Sr.

Anything involving the word "belt".

How About A Nice Hawaiian Punch ???
 

Agree.

I don't think they want to ban terms that are being properly used in scientific vernacular. They want the average every day American to think about the words that are being used in every day language and make sure the use is accurate.

A few years ago "Gitmo" was on the list. That has been common shorthand used by the armed forces for decades to refer to the Naval base in Cuba. The problem was that news reporters and others were using that to reference "Camp X-Ray" which was only a small part of the base. Heck, people still want to "close Gitmo" when they really only want the prisoners released from the detention center.

Similarly, "Polar Vortex" was overused in 2014 to the point where every cold front that came through the midwest was a "polar vortex" according to some of my coworkers.

my vote goes toward "ball don't lie!"

I've even heard coaches say this after a missed free throw. The translation of this phrase is essentially "that referee made a terrible call, and you (shooter) missed that shot because you didn't deserve it in the first place."

Anyone else thinking of serving some T if a coach makes a comment like this? At the very least, coach is getting a stern warning from me.

It's Gotta Be Lots Worse than That...Plus, He Might Be Right
 

Not "in my game".
:D

If I hear it more than once or twice, I'll address it.