Blown Call

[mcrowder]

Rut - up until this last post, most of what you said has been constructive. This last one was uncalled for. He as much as admitted he didn't "get" it, and was asking for input - so instead you berate him. Totally unnecessary. He sounds like a new guy who wants to learn. Don't you want people like this in your association? Besides - he had a good question ... one I asked when I was new.

bjudge - there are a number of reasons why, when one official makes the judgement call to throw a flag, and another makes the judgement call to NOT throw a flag, on the same play, you tend to favor the one that threw the flag.

First and foremost is that with so much to look for, if one official sees what he considers a foul, and another doesn't, it is not necessarily that one decision was better than another. It is likely that the foul was only observable from one angle, and in most cases like this, there WAS a foul. (In the case that began this post, it is entirely possible that the new guy made a mistake, but it's equally possible that he had a better (or simply different) angle than you --- but even if he made a mistake, in the long run you are better off living with the mistake and using it to teach or learn).

Another secondary reason is that for the credibility of the crew, it looks bad to be continually waving off flags. Also, if a new official starts having his flags "overruled", he is likely to eventually become flag-shy, and a worse official. A far better way to handle things has been mentioned repeatedly above - communicate.