Football in the Tundra -- ESPN series

[Rich]

Interesting story:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/etick...ry?page=tundra

Of course, I focused right in on this:

The next week against Valdez, there's improvement. The Whalers graduate to the next level of football blunders. A ball hits a Barrow punt returner in the leg and is returned for a touchdown. Fotukava throws an interception on a botched punt, and it, too, is returned for a touchdown. Valdez defeats Barrow, 33-0.

[parepat]

Originally Posted by Rich Fronheiser

Interesting story:

[ A ball hits a Barrow punt returner in the leg and is returned for a touchdown.

How? Not a muff?

[FootballRef05]

Dead when K recovered it.

[BoomerSooner]

The article discussed the fact that of the 7-man (person) crew only 1 had any previous football officiating experience and if I remember correctly he hadn't worked any games in a long time. Their training consisted of reading and reviewing the rulebook with each other. No camps or conferences or anything of that nature. This is likely one of those things that they missed, as they were probably more concerned with the things that happen on every down (i.e. blocking/holding, false starts, legal formations, etc).

I think its great that they could even find 7 people (it sounds like there was at least one woman on the crew) to officiate a game that seemingly doesn't have a large following in the area. The article didn't make too much of the officiating so it must not have been that big an issue seeing as how the media is always quick to point out officiating errors.