This will be my first year officiating football. I am beginning my fifth year as a basketball official. Could some of you give me some helpful advice as to the similarities and differences in my role as an official in football as opposed to basketball?

Welcome to football! You'll really enjoy it. I've not officiated basketball, but having seen BB up close and talked to BB and football officials I have a few suggestions thoughts.

Be SLOW on the whistle. If you see a foul during a live ball, don't hit the whistle and kill the play. Throw the flag and after the play your crew will sort it out.

If you can stand the heat of from coaches, parents etc in basketball, you'll do fine in football!

PS--Good sig line!

Moving from BB to FB is easier than going the other way. I found FB to be easier: You have a long time between plays so you can review in your mind the last play and prepare for the next play, you concentrate on your own area and 'keys', you work with 2,3,4,5 other guys so you have a real 'team' feeling out there, you are outside, you are far from the fans and farther from the coaches than in BB,you are more likely to work with other experienced officials when you start out, the game is not as fast. Once you learn the basic spots for enforcement and the definitions, you will have a good start toward understanding the rules.

I look forward to the fresh air, teamwork and working with kids every Friday night in the fall!

I agree, I moved from FB to BB last year and to me basketball is 10 times harder to officiate. As was said if you can do bB then FB "should" come easier.

Take your whistle out of your mouth.

I have a BB official on my crew and this is his first year. He is not allowed to carry a whistle because I don't want him running with a whistle in his mouth. This is a technique I learned from a college referee.

This too has been my greatest call!

Thank you for your good advice. I have the fortune of starting with a couple of veteran officials, so that will be a tremendous help I'm sure. I will be reading this forum quite a bit this season. I have learned much on the bball page; I'm sure this page will be no different.

Praise the Lord for making that call JugglingReferee!

While I don't agree about not letting an official (of any experience) carry a whistle. I do agree that it should be placed where it's hard to get at. Thereby giving time to rethink the whistle.
I started FB after a number of years as an soocer Ref and has to work hard to keep the whistle quiet. The first play in my first scrinmage: saw the clip, threw the flag, blew the whistle, looked real happy .....for about 5 seconds.