Since the season is over, or almost over for some of you highly rated officials, I figure we can start this topic up to learn somthing. Maybe it will be funny.

What was the biggest mistake you made this year? Not asking to ridicule you(although if its really bad then maybe we will), but I think we can all learn from others mistakes.

I screwed up an enforcement, which really pisses me off, when we had a defensive foul on the last play of the game and I forgot to tell the offense they could decline the penalty and the game would be over. The offense was ahead by about 20 and there was no bad blood, they just downed it, but I was kicking myself as we left the field and my wingman told me I screwed it up. Actually he tried to tell me before we ran the play, but I misunderstood what he was saying, so we ran the untimed down.

Ok I got a good one! (Really a bad one) In one of our varsity games I was playing LJ (6 man crew), and the offense lined up to punt. After the punt, the returner comes over to my sideline, the BJ is covering the return. Well I see that he is coming toward me and I just KNEW he was going to get tackled, so I start yelling at the team on my sideline to move back so nobody would get hurt. Well by the time I looked up, the returner flew by me at moch 3 and kept going down the sideline. Now I KNOW I'm in big trouble. (I'm around the 50 yd line) So I start to run after him and "follow" the play, if that's what you want to call it. Sure enough, a defender is on his trail and I look at the WH amd he is scanning around like "who's covering the goal line?" (He's old so he wasn't about to run after him)
Anyway, the returner gets tackled around the 1 yard line. Uh oh, now we have controversy! Did he get in or not ??? I don't know ... the WH don't know, he thinks he got tackled at the 1, so I say OK! He's down at the 1. Well then the HL comes over and said he saw the guy cross the goal line and I proceeded to get my butt chewed on the field about how I should be down there yada yada yada... Boy that was a bad day !!! Good thing the game was a blowout. There's nothing worse than when you KNOW you messed up and you can't do nothing about it, especially when a score is involved.

Worst I had was on an easy one. Kickoff. R touches the ball with one hand and it rolls OOB. WH flagged it (3 man crew) and we put it on the 35. I brain locked it which got rusted when the WH said it is still a kick and thus goes to the 35 or 5 yards back and rekick. Was not really my call that got pooched but I didn't help the matter any.

Boy this was stupid. I caused a "fire situation" on an extra point. We're running a JV game with 3-man mechanics. We don't use the recommended mechanics for 3-man, but rather we use a R and 2 wing officials to get coverage of the sidelines since the kids are faster.

K lines up for a PAT. The HL is on his own sideline. I'm lined up on to look at the post on the same side as the HL. The LJ also moves to that post and yells "Hey, Joe take the other post!" At that split second I moved over to the other post but in FRONT of the holder and as I was passing thru the plane the ball was snapped. The holder fumbled the ball and the kick was no good.

I look over to the sideline to see the coach of the kicking team (leading 56-6 - thank God) laughing out loud. I said "coach don't worry it won't happen in a varsity game." He was OK with letting the play stand.

Now I get to hear about it in front of 150+ people at our annual end-of-the-year banquet where we have a "blunders" section where you get called up in front of everyone and the MC tells everyone about your mistake where you get to turn read as a beet as he presents you with a surprise gift (probably a fire extinguisher for me) and a fox-40 whistle.

I think my biggest mistake was being too far in on the sidelines.

The equivilant of a varsity game, I'm the Head Linesman. Ball scrimmaged from about Team B's 7 yard line. I see a fake hand off to a guy moving down the centre of the field, so I move in from the sidelines to cover this guy crossing the goal line. As soon as he crosses it but before I blow my whistle I notice that he doesn't have the ball. At this time I decide to take a look around to figure out where the ball is. I look to my left and see the player with the ball and the defender on him coming right towards me. I guess I was like a dear in the headlights, and I didn't move until they knocked me down. On the bright side, I covered the play and signalled a touchdown while flat on my a$$. Our AGM is this Friday and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get some sort of gag award for that one.

I was working as the R in a youth game earlier this year. One of the wing officials was a rookie. Second and 8 from A’s 10, A runs a sweep to the rookie's side of the field and dives for the pylon. I move to the pylon to 'help' as the wing is not giving any signals.

As I get there he's placing the ball on the sideline with about 1/2 of it on the goal line. I’m now concerned because the chain crew is comprised of the parents of team A and they can clearly see where he put the ball. I tell him that if that's where the ball is we have a TD. Without hesitation he goes up and signals the score. The defensive sideline erupts.

After the try for point the other official comes and asks me what happens. I explain the situation and tell them that I know the sideline is upset because it looked like I talked the rookie official into calling a TD. He replies, "You did!"

Grrrrrrrrrr.

They give you a free whistle for screwing up????

And here I am paying $8 like a sucker :D

A bit of background to the play...

A32 B33.
3rd and 6 on B's 10. A runs for a first down, but is stopped at B's 2.
Chains are reset, and as the R blows RFP the BJ blows his whistle for game - he had not seen the stop the clock signal.
R calls the teams back and explains, putting an estimated 8 seconds back on the clock and starts it on the RFP (A has time to organize their fieldgoal unit).

So, already we look not so good....

Field goal attempt from B's 2 is blocked (must be behind or in the expanded NZ) and comes down in the endzone.
My thought - This ball is dead.
My second thought - More experiences officials then me are not blowing it dead, maybe I am wrong.

B player lunges at ball and knocks it (no TB), A player lunges at ball and knocks it (no TD) - ball rolls out of the back of the EZ.
Other officials say it the FG attempt is over and call the game.

If A had recovered the ball in the EZ, I think everyone else on the crew would have given them the TD - it was only after I pointed it out after the game that any of them thought differently (and then it took a while to convice them). I wouldn't have wanted to have to explain (after the clock error as well) why A did not win the game.

Turned out ok, but I didn't like the way any of it was handled, and the potential was there for a real problem. I'm still not sure if I should go with my insticts and blow it dead (risking an IW), or let it play out and sort it out later...

James

Only did 4 varsity games on the field this year. I can honestly say I didn't have any screwups to talk about. Don't worry, I'll have plenty next year.

One game I was on the clock and they totally screwed up an enforcement but I didn't catch it. Not a lot of good I would have been up in the clock, but I would like to think I should have picked it up anyhow.

Kickoff. Never hits the ground, then touched by K. Kick Catch Interference on K. They gave R the ball, AND 15 yards fromt he spot. Ouch. Still can't believe I didn't notice it.

Not me or my crew but between a try and a kickoff there were two 15 yards penalties of some sort on the non-scoring team. So the kickoff is moved to the R-30. The kickoff goes out-of-bounds. The officials place the ball at the R-35 because that is where you place a ball after it is kicked OOB. Would have been nice if they remembered it should have been 25 yards from previous spot.

Yikes! After penalty enforcement, K kicked from R's 30. They gave R the ball behind K's kicking line???

REPLY: Todd, do you remember when that was a legitimate option for KCI in Federation? It lasted for a few years. Then they dumped it.

I don't remember that. Just got started doing HS ball two years ago.

Did I miss something here. All kicks regardless of force in B's endzone are a touchback, aren't they? Yeah yeah I know if it rebounds off B through the cross bars it counts but here it came down in the endzone. Please un-confuse me.

[Edited by Bob Mc on Dec 2nd, 2004 at 03:40 PM]

In NF, yes, it should have been a TB as soon is the scrimmage kicked crossed the goal line.

My blunder
 

Im a FJ 6(man) we have a long pass into the end zone I am at the pylon where im supposed to be the reciever is directly in front of me the defender is in front of him I see the reciever kin of contort un naturally but I never see any contact.....so I put my hand on the ball of my flag but i hesitate so I pass on it. ( i never sawe any contact so i went immediatly to if you think you have a foul you dont....) Well i got chewed by the coach who saw me grab the flag. At the half the U and HL said to me the guy got hit in the stomach why didnt you flag him i explained about my not seeing any conact and then the said HMMM maybe i should have thrown it..... so me and the HL now have a signal that if i see the reciever contort or move unnatural but im unsure of contact and he has contact ill look at him and hell reach to his flag and we can both have it on the ground in time

Bob, I think that's the point, they made a mistake about not calling it a TB. Atleast that's how I intepretate it.

Re: My blunder
 

If the HL saw it he should have flagged it unless it was clear accross the field. Also, how would the U know if it was or was not? His job should be cleaning up the line. When I work the U I never see long passes downfield because I am cleaning up "my" linesmen. For being in the middle of the game the U should have the worst seat in the house as he misses most of the game.

Did I miss something here. All kicks regardless of force in B's endzone are a touchback, aren't they? Yeah yeah I know if it rebounds off B through the cross bars it counts but here it came down in the endzone. Please un-confuse me.

[Edited by Bob Mc on Dec 2nd, 2004 at 03:40 PM] [/B][/QUOTE]

Sorry Bob, I forgot to write that we use NCAA rules. I'll try to remember to include that fact in the future.

James

Mine isn't nearly as juicy as "blocking" the snap on a try, but here it goes anyway:

Subvarsity game, so it's a 4-man crew, and I am the LJ (thankfully it wasn't as "big" as a varsity game, but that is no excuse for not getting things right). K punts, and I am down there covering it. The ball is rolling along (not stopped, but it doesn't have that much momentum), and no R players are around. It touches a K player. Rather than just bagging the first touch, I decide it might be a good idea to blow my whistle...and I didn't even get a free Fox 40!

REPLY: Free kick over the first line of R into a relatively empty area. Mad scramble for the loose ball. Players from K and R dive for the loose ball. K muffs it. It rolls closer to the sideline. Finally a K player dives on it, but I rule that his leg was lying OOB when he recovered it. First down for R at the inbounds spot. No objections from anyone. About three plays later it dawns on me that no player from R ever touched the ball! Should have been a free kick OOB infraction offering R the three options. Thankfully the play had no real bearing on the game as the half ended shortly thereafter.

That's what they did. It just shocks me everytime I think about it.

I had that exact same situation happen to me. It happened so fast, it totally blew my mind. None of the coaches noticed either.

Re: Re: My blunder
 

Our U always turns on a pass after a ball crosses the NZ to help incase we are screened happens all the time.

His mechanic on a pass is to run tho the los and then turn to see the pass

What was the biggest
 

mistake you made this