One more night...

[bigwes68]

I'm so glad that Wednesday is the championship game of intramural flag football here at UT. Tonight was absolutely awful; one supervisor told me it was the worst single hour he had seen since he'd been working for RecSports.

My game (I am WH): Everything had gone smoothly until right before halftime. Team Orange (I'll call them Orange and Black, since those were the colors), who is trailing 13-12, throws a touchdown pass, but it is called back on OPI. Clock is still running, as per RecSports rules that the clock does not stop in 1st half for anything except a charged time out or official's (injury) time out. So I'm administering the penalty, the clock is winding down, about 2 or 3 seconds left. Orange (who is out of time-outs) is screaming at me to get the ball set and let them run a play. While I'm trying to calm them down and explain that they will get another play since a half cannot end on an accepted penalty, they snap the ball anyway. I blow it dead and tell them to wait. Orange's center heaves the ball toward his sideline in frustration, and all hell nearly breaks loose. I nail him with a USC, back them up 10 more (short field, no 15's), and give them their untimed down. They don't score, half ends.

Second half goes OK until the end, except Orange complains the whole half. I couldn't tell you how many USC's we had, but it was a bunch. Orange retakes the lead, 19-13, with about 3 minutes to play. Black gets the ball and is driving, things are getting tense. All of a sudden, I hear from Orange's side of the ball, directed at Black's sideline, "F*** off, f*****." I drop my flag for USC and toss the guy; I'd heard enough from their team for one night. He starts claiming he didn't say anything; I say that someone sure did and if it wasn't him, someone had better fess up. He is not that team's best athlete so they don't say anything. Black eventually scores with about a minute to play and takes a 20-19 lead. Orange gets the ball back, turns it over on downs. Black sideline goes nuts, I flag them for USC; at the same time, Orange is giving me the cussing of my life. I call the game at this point. As I'm leaving the field (in a hurry), I am informed, with a few choice words, that the penalties were 17-3 against the Orange team. I tell them they brought it upon themselves because they would never shut up and I get the heck out of there.

I stay in the officials' room for about 15 minutes, enough time for everyone to clear out. After I leave, the guy I tossed comes after me, wanting to know why he got tossed. I told him, and he tells me to go f*** myself, among other things. As far as I'm concerned, he just got banned from all RecSports facilities.

Oh, the other game? It went to double OT and the team that lost was still complaining to the intramural director after I left. Apparently every intramural official is "biased" against their team, if you get my drift.

I've got the women's championship tomorrow, that should go MUCH more smoothly -- we hope.

[PSU213]

I used to hate to officiate IM football, because everyone took it so seriously. Having a high school coach chew me out is a "breeze" compared to some of the IM situations. Not to mention in IM football there were the actual rules, the rules quoted by the players, and the rules enforced by the officials (and they were all different).

[CaptStevenM]

I finished my IM football career last week, and that sounds about most Fraternity games I've worked. Here at NC State, clock stops in the last two minutes of both halves. In NIRSA rules a forfeit is called when a team gets 4 USC penalities; do you use modified rules for that at UT.

I was WH for a sorority game. I final score was 1-0. Both teams kept trying to run the ball and together passed about half a dozen times combined. After an overtime series of 4 downs each from the 10, it was still scoreless. So, here at NC State, we goto sudden death. Each team gets to try for point (1 pt from the 3, 2 pts from the 10, 3 pts from the 20). There were 8 tries a piece; half of which were illegal contact on both sides, repeat the try. Finally one team scored and the other team opted to try for two; game over.

As much crap I got from players and the bad football I saw: I'm going to miss it.

[Axe Man]

BigWes68...sorry to hear about your "difficult" evening. I remember having a few of those nights back at ole UT before the new building and the turf. As a side note, I got to see the building when I went to the Notre Dame game. Really nice place.

I'm sure that Jackie was more than supportive of how you handled the events. We IM directors are used to taking the heat for our officials. My only comment is that the unsportsmanlike conduct seemed to go on for quite a long time. We have a rule in place for football that says any team that gets 3 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties during the game, game is over. Sounds to me like you went well over that. Just as a side on the team comments and conduct following the game, even at IM level, I don't suggest talking to teams who are upset. Nothing good will come of it. Get your crew together and get gone. Hopefully your women's game will go better, but don't bet on it.

CaptStevenM...tell David Parker that sudden death rule is nice. Must have been put in for sorority games.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally posted by bigwes68
I'm so glad that Wednesday is the championship game of intramural flag football here at UT.

Toronto?

[bigwes68]

Originally posted by Axe Man
BigWes68...sorry to hear about your "difficult" evening. I remember having a few of those nights back at ole UT before the new building and the turf. As a side note, I got to see the building when I went to the Notre Dame game. Really nice place.

I'm sure that Jackie was more than supportive of how you handled the events. We IM directors are used to taking the heat for our officials. My only comment is that the unsportsmanlike conduct seemed to go on for quite a long time. We have a rule in place for football that says any team that gets 3 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties during the game, game is over. Sounds to me like you went well over that. Just as a side on the team comments and conduct following the game, even at IM level, I don't suggest talking to teams who are upset. Nothing good will come of it. Get your crew together and get gone. Hopefully your women's game will go better, but don't bet on it.

The women's championship went very smoothly. I even broke out the full uniform, complete with white hat. I think about half the girls liked it, and the other half just thought I was a huge nerd. There was no score until the last minute of the game, final was 7-0. There were about 7 interceptions, including a stretch of 3 plays in a row where the ball was turned over. Sorority team that had won 3 titles in a row was on the losing end, and they were pissed.

I think implementing that 3 USC = game over deal would be a great idea. As of now, we don't have any rules like that in football, just basketball. We do have a few refs with a really quick trigger, though, and it could mean an awful lot of forfeits. But it would at least be something we could hold over the players' heads so they'd just keep their mouths shut.

That other game I was talking about -- the one team stayed on the field for a good hour after the game complaining to Jackie--all this while my game was going on. I can't believe he stood there and listened to them. It's good to have a guy like Jackie around, he always takes up for his officials.

[bigwes68]

Originally posted by JugglingReferee

Toronto?

Tennessee.