w-sohl I thought this was supposed to be a humorous thread. You're making far too much out of it. The wingman did explain there was an illegal formation, six men on the line caused probably by having only ten players on the field. This should have been sufficient. Maybe I can satisfy -sohl by changing the end of the story. I call an official's time-out, calmly walk over to the sideline, pick out a player and inform the coach, "number 65 is his number, he was supposed to be in at left guard".

Like I said, this was the way I interpreted teh story the first time I read it:

It sounded like you were on that coaches sideline and he simply asked you and you just pretended that he wasn't there. That was the meaning that I got from the post. Did your wingman explain to him that he only had ten on the field or did he just tell him it was an illegal formation? If he had told the coach that he was short a player then the coach has bigger problems if he can't figure it out then.

Seeing that you left out some information and then getting that information enlightened me to the fact that the coach was not with it and that you were not being an a**hole. Yes your wingmans explanation should have been plenty, but the coach did not pay attention, hahahaha.

We had conclued pre-game with coaches and were standing in the home team box stretching. The punter was stilling warming up. Our WH was stretching with his head down and feet wide apart. Someone yelled "HEADS UP" which the WH did just as the ball landed right in front of him. He spent the rest of the pre-game sitting on the bence moaning with the rest of the crew laughing our heads off!!

I was working L in a big game envolving two rivals. The corners were working a close man coverage with a lot of bumping near the line. 3rd and 10 late and you know its a pass. Receiver and corner running down field and I'm right with them; I glance @ QB and he is cocked ready to throw. The receive curls inside and the corner makes a break on the ball and I'm saying "man this is going to be interesting". Suddendly they both stop and look directly at me and I'm thinking "what the hecks going on"? I look back at the QB and all I saw was the white stripe of the ball as it hit me directly in the mouth!

yes, I still have my teeth.

Did you have the presence of mind to signal imcomplete? :b

OUCH!

As a matter of fact I did. The fans enjoyed it a lot!

At a JV game the other night, one fan was continually badgering the refs from way up in the stands. At one point, he yells, "Come on, Ref! This isn't a basketball game!" Their coach (a nice guy) was right next to me and I mutter, "I have no idea what that means." He just says, "I'm embarrassed to say, that's my dad, and don't worry, neither do I."

Dark Humor
 

This one is funny many years later, but it is a bit dark humor.

About 10 or 12 years ago I was doing a varsity grade school game. One sideline was a "hot" sideline from the beginning. A player from that sideline was running a pass route and had the ball nearly in his hands when he "heard footsteps", got cold feet and dropped the ball. A coach ran out ranting...grabbed the kid by the facemask, jerked him around calling him a "pussy". I immediately threw a flag for unsportsmanlike penalty to which the coach responded, rather loudly, "You can't throw a penalty on me....he's my kid!". I preceded to toss the coach out of the game.

Lightening the mood....
 

Sometimes it can be a looooong time between live ball intervals. Here's a couple jokes I've played on the players to lighten the mood.

When the defense breaks from their huddle, look any player right in the eye and excitedly say "You've only got 11 players out here!". Watch as he turns and starts to count.....one player I did it to frantically started yelling to the sideline, "coach,coach,coach, we've only got ll out here, we've only got 11!" His sideline had fun with him on that one.

When setting up for a kickoff, especially in the dog days of summer, wait for the kicker to set the ball on the kicking tee. Then quietly and quite seriously look him in the eyes and say "You've got the ball upside down". Watch the ones that will turn the ball over on the tee. One time I did this the kid came walking back to the tee and his coach noticed him readjusting the ball. The coach yelled out to the kicker , "What's wrong?" to which the kid replied, "I had the ball upside down". The look on the coaches face was priceless.


giddyup

I may try that tonight in my final JV game... or maybe next Saturday at PeeWee. "You've got the ball upside down." Priceless.

JeMoore

Priceless is the word! I will remember those.

We're doing a state semifinal Sat. I may hold off on those until next year.

Forksref,

You're not doing the West Fargo game are you?

Zman

Zman

No, doing the Cavalier/Valley City game. We get to freeze! Should be playing it at the Alerus.

Who's doing the W. Fargo game?

I am mainly a football official, but do some basketball also, so I have to share this one, I guess you could apply it to football.

I'm trail in a intramural game at Indiana University, the offense dribbler makes a cut to the lane where he is subsequently sandwiched by three defenders. I call the block, as I am only a few feet away from the scorer; I start to back up to call the foul, trying to find a defensive number to call it on, without luck. I search around for about 4 or 5 seconds, when a defensive guy (#24) calls out "That was on me?!", and I go "ah!, foul on white 24 shooting 2," all the time myself and the scorer sporting the largest grins!

LOL....yeah, it's nice when they admit their guilt....even if they didn't mean to admit anything. It happens in football too from time to time.

Had a flag on a kick return. I turned and told the coach what I had and the number. He told me it was impossible. I said yeah I should have thought about that before I threw the flag since the kids hasn't blocked all year. Coach grumbled I was no fun since I stole his line.

Coaches had complained off an on during the game that number 99 on the opposing team was holding. Finally in the 4th quarter, when the ball game is well out of hand, an "old timer" assistant coach (old timer meaning that he has been a coach for over 40+ years) starts hollering that number 99 was holding already. A few seconds later the ball was snapped. Whole sideline busted out laughing.