Coaches Actions

[Was He Down]

Let's hear some old war stories about the one coach we've all dealt with that you just can't understand where they get their line of thinking because they know they are NEVER WRONG.

[chiefgil]

Home team 42 - Visitors 0

Visitors finnally get a drive late in the 4 QTR. 1 & goal at the 1. Defense lines up with no nose guard, and no middle LB.

At the snap it becomes evident why the score is 42-0. QB pitches out to the TB around the left side. TB gets hit, knocked in the air at the 5, drops the ball, and his body continues in-flight well into the EZ. But the ball is lying at the 1. B jumps on it, 1st down Red.

Visitors band starts playing, the cheerleaders are cheering, the pom-pom squad is pom-poming, just a generl state of euphoria, until we signal 1st down for the other team.

The coach wants a conference.
"Why is it not a TD"
"Because the ball did not cross the GL"
"But my player is in the EZ"
"Coach, let me explain. If you drive a Greyhound bus into the EZ, and the ball ain't on the bus, it ain't a touchdown"
"Why not?"
"Because the ball did not cross the GL"
"Well what is it then?"
"1st down for the other team"

yada, yada, yada...

[schmitty1973]

A couple weeks ago we had a game and both teams were in the NZ at least one play of almost every drive in the whole 1st quarter. Of course really comes in to play on a 4th down and 1. The defense jumps, but does not cross the NZ. The coach on my side starts screaming up a storm. Later at halftime, an assistant coach asks me "Where exactly is the nuetral zone". So I told him it's the lenght of the ball, so I hear him tell the head coach and he "OHHHhhh", like a lightbulb just went off. It's amazing how they argue and they don't even know what they are arguing about.

Alot of times people think that just because a defender "jumps" that should be an offside.

[Bob Proctor]

How many of us have had a coach jump and scream about a flag, making a great spectacle of himself, only to swallow his nose when we mark off the yardage against his opponent?

How many heard about the greasy problem at Sacramento State this year? Early in the season a photographer told a coach he had just seen his players spraying PAM all over themselves. The coach told the photographer that if he saw it again to take a picture of it. Guess what happened next? The NCAA was impressed by the pictures and then they impressed Sac State.

[cowbyfan1]

Coach #1
me "Coach we have a flag on number 3 for a block below waist, in the end zone. Result is a safety."

coach "I need a better explanation then that."

Me "What do you need coach? You running back blocked the linebacker below the waist in the end zone."

Coach "You mean to tell me that if we hold in the end zone it is a safety?

Me "Yeah coach, spot of foul."

Now would you be surprised if I told you that team won the state championship?

Coach #2
kickoff goes out of bound untouched by R and under the bleachers (true football stadium, not a track field). R player sees this and stops. K player runs up and drills the R player in the back. Flag for a personal foul.

Coach "That isn't a late hit, the whistle wasn't blown"

Me "Whistle does not kill the play coach. Ball was undewr the bleachers and the r player stopped. Your player didn't need to kit him."

coach "You mean my players need to always know where the ball is?"

Me "Would help, kinda hard to make a tackle if they don't"

Coach "But the whistle did not blow."

Me "Does not have to coach. Only an IW kills the play."

Coach "You need to read your rule book."

would you be surprised if I tould you this coach has won a number of State titles?

coach 3

Flag on the home team for 12 on the field

Coach "James you're not gonna let us play with 12"

Me "coach it's 28-0 and we are not even in the 2nd quarter, we should make you play with 10 for a while."

coach "can you do that?"

Coach 4
coach "be fore warned ref we have a special defense"

me "what is that coach"

coach "it's called the Southwestern Bell defense. We reach out and touch someone."


Coach 5
Coach yells to his offensive guard "Billy that was your man that sacked the quaterback"

Billy "I was guarding him coach."

Coach "great now try blocking him."

[JasonTX]

During a pee-wee game this past saturday. We are working a 3 man crew. Referee and two wings. The snapper starts the snap and the QB simulates like he has the ball, the snapper keeps the ball and runs for an apparent TD. We throw flags. None of us could tell if QB took the ball and handed it back to the snapper or if it was just an illegal snap. The coach goes wild and is on the field telling us this is legal. Right in front of the kids he is cussing. We tried to explain the rules for a legal snap and the rules for handing the ball forward to a lineman but his cussing got worst. Two flags and we told him he had to leave the field. This was supported by the commissioner of the league. During halftime some curious fans didn't have any clue as to why this was illegal. Since they were polite I showed them the rule book. They still didn't understand. During halftime we got word that the coaches were telling the players to just start hitting whether it was late hits or not. During the third qtr. a player gets injured and then tells us he was punched between the legs. We warned the team if their coach has put them up to late hits that the game would be called. Next play the runner goes OOB. He was hit way OOB and then piled on. We ended the game right then. By then police were on every corner of the field in case the fans got stupid.

[FredFan7]

Originally posted by JasonTX
During a pee-wee game this past saturday. We are working a 3 man crew. Referee and two wings. The snapper starts the snap and the QB simulates like he has the ball, the snapper keeps the ball and runs for an apparent TD. We throw flags. None of us could tell if QB took the ball and handed it back to the snapper or if it was just an illegal snap. The coach goes wild and is on the field telling us this is legal. Right in front of the kids he is cussing. We tried to explain the rules for a legal snap and the rules for handing the ball forward to a lineman but his cussing got worst. Two flags and we told him he had to leave the field. This was supported by the commissioner of the league. During halftime some curious fans didn't have any clue as to why this was illegal. Since they were polite I showed them the rule book. They still didn't understand. During halftime we got word that the coaches were telling the players to just start hitting whether it was late hits or not. During the third qtr. a player gets injured and then tells us he was punched between the legs. We warned the team if their coach has put them up to late hits that the game would be called. Next play the runner goes OOB. He was hit way OOB and then piled on. We ended the game right then. By then police were on every corner of the field in case the fans got stupid.

And people wonder why there's a shortage of officials in some areas, especially for youth games.

[Bob Proctor]

A few years ago I was crew chief for a Pop Warner conference title game. The gane was held on a field that had no lights and started at 7:00 pm. They had rented lights that were only about 10 feet tall. It was raining horses and the field looked like a movie set. From the opening kick off it was clear that one team was way more aggressive than the other, evidenced by an ejection for the white team 4 minutes into the contest for throwing and landing a punch (or several). As we wound through the game we had three more ejections for the same thing on white team players and none on the red team. I find out later that the Red coach had prepared his team for this aggressive conduct by training them all week to stand up with arms outstretched and let the aggressor hit him. It worked.

We were working in mud up over our ankles, wet, and cold ... thoroughly miserable! With 5:30 left in the contest my umpire calls holding down around the 5 yard line. I get the foul from her and turn to the press box for the preliminary signal. As I give the signal I sense something is not right. I turn around and spot my head linesman on the ground on top of a player with a policeman on top of them both. Sensing the impending doom which was about to decend upon us, I turn back towards the center of the field and spot both stands emptying onto the field and a riot ensues. About that time a Red player runs up to me and screams, "I'm gonna kick your f***ing A** and disappears due to a fine open field tackle by a father. Using our finely tuned football instincts, we decide that it's time to go. I get the crew together and we get a police escort from the field. As we approach the car I discover that my linesman is now missing. In a panic I look around for him and spot him running through the melee on the field to retrieve his buck-forty-nine clip. Without changing we jump into our cars and speed away (mud and all) to the nearest available de-briefing spot. After several de-briefing beverages I drive home. The next morning there is an additional riot at my house ... something about mud in my wife's car. Go figure.

[jimbulger1]

#1 pee-wee game white quaterback gets hit late by blue.
Im the WH so I flag it and watch what else happens (incomplete pass BTW) white quarterback gets up and punches blue player who hit him late. Blue punches back so I get the players have the wing guys escort them to respective benches while i look at the press box and give signals ejecting both playes....white coach comes out onto the field and bups me ripping off his shirt yelling calling me a P#@ssy which i have my special 15 flag in my back pocket that ejects him....but unfortunately we needed cops (there already) to get him to leave I believe he was charged and had to pay a fine for disorderly conduct.


#2 same year same pee-wee league different teams

Im a U in 3 man with a green pea for a WH (we do that often to give them the feel for the game i keep him straight as the U) we have a pass over the middle to a TD who get clobbered early my L throws a flag for DPI but has his whistle in his mouth so when he took a breath to throw hif flag he had a IW.... well after the DPI the ball was actually tiped by a defender caught by A and ran in for A TD that had to come back because of the IW.... we ruled that since the foul occured before the IW we gave A the foul 1st and 10 well dont you know a goes four and out andt ther coach is screaming that he should have had that touchdown yadda yadda i tell him get back on the sideline he doesnt and instead swears at me so I hit him with 15 he then pick up my flag and throws it>>>i responded with....HEY COACH...LOOK I GOT ANOTHER AND NOW.....YOUR EJECTED.... at which point he was given a three game suspension by league officials

[Green]

I threw a flag for holding on a sweep that went to A’s side of the field near their bench which called back a TD. The staff used one of coaches’ favored sayings “That was a horrible call.” One of the assistants came onto the field to express his concerns that it was a horrible call which he was flagged for unsportsmenship. After 25 yards for the hold and coach’s poor behavior was marched off, the head coach asked for the players number, who the hold was called on. In the process of showing their displeasure for the call, apparently they were not listening when I told them the foul was on #55.

At the half, it was my duty to talk with the head coach as to where they were going for half time. He was very mild and made a couple of humorous comments. I got the feeling, they thought I had called the foul on one of their other players and not #55. Maybe they asked #55 if he held and he said yes.

Coaches have some very interest ways of saying they’re wrong without coming out and saying they were wrong.

****************

I had a play where the ball carrier hit the turf and then the ball popped out into the hands of B with 60 yards of clear field to his goal line. I blew the whistle calling the ball dead. One coach voiced his displeasure over and over without being unsportsmenship. I went to get them at half time and same coach continued to complain. I said, at half time I checked with the Umpire as to what he saw. He had the ball carrier down, dead ball.

Two weeks later I had the same team. When I walked onto the field, that same coach came up and asked a question about a rule that had nothing to do with the play I had ruled on two weeks ago. No doubt he had viewed the tape and saw he was wrong. I respected the idea that he was will to say he was wrong even if it was said in a roundabout way. Coaches are coaches.