Here we go again
 

And now we have another incident in Tennessee of a player hitting an official
Tennessee HS Football Player Suspended After Hitting Referee on Video | Bleacher Report

I work as an umpire and have been hit by players as well as the ball and never thought it was intentional. This doesn't look intentional to me but, I like what the school and parents are doing. It would be nice to hear input from the official involved.

This looks very intentional and in the article the official does give his input.

After reading what the official said, I have changed my mind....

“I think it’s pretty obvious what went down,” Gill said.

Gill said that he had spoken to Easley just prior to the play.

“I had spoken to the player on the play before and he told me that I was in his way,” Gill said. “I asked him how long he’d been playing football and he had to realize that the referees are part of the field. I told him that he should have to avoid me and not the other way around. On the very next play, you saw what happened.”

Absolutely no doubt this was intentional. The player measures him up and lunges at him. While I don't condone this hit at all, I do have a problem with what the official said. I believe it is our job to try and avoid the players the best we can.

The reason you know this is intentional: it happened on the VERY NEXT PLAY after the conversation too place. Had it been 10 minutes later, there could've been some room for doubt.

However, as an umpire, I certainly wouldn't talk to a player like that. The whole conversation sounds needlessly confrontational. I do my best to try to stay out of the scrum as much as possible (although sometimes it's unavoidable). I've even apologized to players for getting in the way, or thanked them for "not killing me" when I do get caught up.

Also, depending on how lower levels of play are officiated, it's entirely possible he hasn't had to deal with an umpire in the middle of the field before now. Around here, all of our non-varsity games are officiated with 2 wings and an R, or sometimes just two wings (which is terrible for all kinds of reasons). The only time we add an Umpire and Back Judge is on Varsity games.

From a purely professional observation, looking at what happened, had that Umpire been another player, would you have flagged him for a deliberate "Cheap Shot" on a defenseless player?

This looks completely deliberate, agreed. I've been the U for most of my 20 years on Friday nights, and have been plowed over or leg whipped more times than I care to count, but more than confident that none of them were ever intentional.

I agree with jTheUmp said and this takes me back to the second TX incident where the ump is continuing to bark at the huddle and especially at the kid that eventually contacts him. Never should it have led to that, but I don't know why he tried to borrow trouble and keep barking at the kid and following him like he did. That episode looked like not one official was interested in "preventative officiating" until it was past the point of no return. Take care of your business with your crew and your flag, that's why you have them both.

I've had this conversation with more than a few officials over the last 2 years and this makes me wonder again how long it will be before our mechanics as U are to be working in the O backfield.

I refuse to work 3-man. We work most of our subvarsity with 5. Nothing at the HS level is done with fewer than 4 around here. Even the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade games I've assigned has had 4 officials.

You're joking, right??