All rules are "As seen on TV".
I think everyone who does youth football have been yelled at by the coaches and parents for not enforcing NFL & NCAA rules on Saturday morning. A few years ago we had a pass intercepted on a try, we blew it dead and the coach wondered why . He thought his player could run it back for 2 points. I asked him what college team he was coaching,as it is only used in NCAA games! He gave me the old blank stare.

The biggest misconception about youth football is that it is for the kids and that it is for fun. As I have seen, it is for the parents, especially the dads who think they are all Vince Lombardi. And it is about winning....and winning...and winning. Oh, and also because all these kids will develop into college All-Americans.

I am so old that I can remember when we had fun as kids playing football, baseball and basketball with other kids in the backyard. And we didn't need parents around to have fun. We called our own fouls, made our own teams and never worried about who was going to play the most. And, we forgot about the score when the game was over. We didn't need a trophy at the end of the season to know that we did a good job. I wish our kids today had the same opportunity.

Yeah and cars had no computes in them and gas was under $1.00 a gallon and there were no video games. Mom's would stay at home and would not need to say go outside and play and, and, and.

I miss the simplier life as well.

Heck, gas was under a buck a gallon around here ... six years ago? I remember there was a week or two where the price per gallon in cents was less than the octane rating.

Heard this from B's sideline this past Friday night as I was enforcing an illegal participation foul against B for having the 11th player enter the field after A had snaped the ball.

"He was the 11th player- that's legal".

My BJ agreed with them and tried to talk me out of it, but after I told him 3 times that no player may enter during the down, he finally relented.

Did a 2 youth games this weekend and on one team the coaches were convinced we were making calls based on who's home field it was. I had never been to that field before and didn't even know if they were playing a team who's home field it was (it was a jamboree). It's amazing the perception. Of course, the kids pick this up.

You 'Homer' you!

Last year I had a coach wanting me to call the back for false start since he was twitching a foot. Screaming and hollering at me almost every play. I call an officials TO (Remember we're talking 10 yr olds playing here) and ask him if he'd like me to also start dropping flags on his D for lining up over the ball too?

Cause while he was screaming about "movement" we were lining up his D for him prior to the snap.

"Nevermind" he says as he slunked away.

WM

One of my favorites.

Two players lined up next to each other on the left side of the offensive line and both went out for a pass.

When I tried to explain to the coach only the end could go out for a pass I get this.

One is the tight end and the other is the split end.

Of course, I tried the useless tactic of explaining what the word "end" meant.

Then the final word, "they didn't call that last week!"

I had my first games this weekend as well. Worked the two youngest-kid games on the visitors sideline. I then switched over to the home sideline for the senior game. Well, home team wasn't too happy with my calls, and thought that all of us refs must have been from the visiting town.

Only problem - I was from the home team's town.

Once had about a 10-year-old actually say to his teammates after a flag, "The refs want them to win."

Holy cow, I just had to laugh. I'd have laughed harder if it wasn't so freaking sad.