OK...1st year as an official and I had a couple situations so far this year that I just want to throw out there. In both situations I am the Linesman.
In situation #1 I have the defensive end on the far side clearly offsides. I wait for a second to see if he notices he's lined up offsides and will back up. The QB gets into his cadence and since the end doesn't back up and the snap is just about to go off I blow the play dead for encroachment. The LJ from the other side comes into the discussion I'm having with the WH and says I told that end he was not lined up offsides then looks at me and says call your side of the field, not mine. They wave off the flag. Later I ask the LJ and he says the game was essentially over and there was no reason to call those things close. Yes the opposing team had little chance of winning as their offense had about a snowball's chance in hell of getting a first down let alone a score. But the game was only like 16-0 so it wasn't out of hand or anything. Anyhow I just chalked it up as experience and moved on.
Situation #2. A sweep around the opposite end. Game is essentially over 32-0 and only a minute left. I see a hold at the point of attack but I remembered the lesson before "call your area not anyone elses." so I ignore it. I wanted to throw the flag cause I hate it when people try to run up the score...but I kept my opinion out of it and kept my flag in my pocket. After the game I ask the WH and LJ why they let the obvious hold go...I mean the kid damn near tore the defensive player jersey off. They both said they didn't see it and asked why if I saw it I didn't flag it. I told them the experience from the prior game and they said that is wrong...you see it you flag it. Now I'm a little confused. Both sets of crews I worked with are very experienced officials so who is right? Do I need to adjust how I call a game based on my counterparts? That don't seem right?
My conclusion was that I will call what I see from now on and and that's that....but I wanted to see what everyone's opinion is. I don't want to piss off a bunch of experienced officials here locally as I would like to learn from each of them.
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