would you say anything
 

freshman level game 40-0 in the 2nd qtr. Team is still throwing deep, double reverse pass, ect. my question is this; do you say anythis to the coach?

No. His time will come. I know that some other team will stick it to him. If I am calling the game, I would start calling every tick tack holds, ect.

What if he is paying back an old score ? What if the team getting beat has done this very thing to the team that is winning, is it OK then? :D

Well of course we do. We say, "Coach, your guard was downfield illegally", or "Coach, your wide receiver on the off side was holding."

You want to lengthen such a game?

No, keep quiet and let it go. You don't have to like it but it's not illegal. During the JV game I was working tonight, the home team was leading 43-0 in the 4th quarter and was still throwing long bombs. I didn't like it but...well that's football I guess.

I've been through this situation twice last weekend. I really hate it and think is lack of sportsmanship, besides being just plain stupid to risc your players health on that kind of crap. But calling every tick tack penalties seems like a bad idea, since the coach will not stop playing for the score and it's going to lengthen the game wildly.
I've thought about suddently being blind to whatever unnecessary roughness the losing team might be using but it just didn't feel right.
So I decided to keep doing my job but, inside, I'm hoping for someone important ofor the winning team to be lost for the season. And I know that's a terrible thing to wish for but I just can't help it.
Remembering that I officiate adults games. No kids...

The problem with that approach is that tempers are already flaring during a blow out, and if you let late hits and other personal fouls go, the game can quickly descend into chaos. Make sure the foul is really there but you still need to call them IMO.

That is crap. Are you sure you are from Texas ??? First you dismiss preventive officiating and now you endorse over officiaiting.

Nothing changes: call the obvious housekeeping fouls, call the pertinent tactical fouls, and call all safety fouls. If anything, shorten the game if the league or teams permit. But do not confuse the athletes about what is and is not a foul.

What, are Texas officials superior in some way?

I tend to think so!!

You don't do anything in this situation. Depending on the level, I'll probably let a few false starts or offsides (on the other team) go, mostly for times sake, but we always get all the felonies and damn sure all the safety calls regardless of score.

Talk to the supervisors in most any major conference and ask them. For those who have taken advantage, the training opportunities each year are superior to what is available in other places. There are plenty who have not availed themseleves of this and they might be decent officials but the guys who have taken this seriously generally are ready for the next level moreson that in other places.

You guys sure those hats are still going to fit on your heads after those comments?

It's not our job to control the score. It is my opinion that we should be blind to the score and officiate the game the same as we have in the beginning. Make the calls be "BIG" in the first quarter and do the same in the 4th qtr. of a blowout. I've had games where one team needed to outscore their opponents by 40+ points in order to make the playoffs due to a point score tiebreaker procedure they have. I'm not going to prevent that by trying to be nit picky on fouls.

How does the saying go..."if the hat fits, wear it" :D

I thought it was "If the glove does not fit..."? :p

Don't you have an excess score rule whereby the clock runs except for a score, timeout or an officals time out? The game would have been done pretty quickly in the second half.

Texas has no blowout rule (except in 6-man football) But guys use common sense in regular ganes once the game is a blowout

No ... this was an attempt at humor. Sorry you didn't get it, and I suppose it should have been accompanied by some sort of icon.

Regarding your "preventative officiating", I did consult some people in the chapter and found that while the opinions were split, the majority seems to be on the side you were endorsing, specifically including my crew chief, so in the future I will warn coaches of I overhear that they are about to run an illegal play. I have always believed in preventative officiating, but didn't think it applied to telling the coaches what plays they can run (at least not DURING the game as opposed to beforehand). But I will now. To me, PO was helping a wideout get "on" or "off", warning players when things start getting chippy, etc.

regarding this OP, of course we should just simply officiate the game presented to us. It's not our call to decide when enough is enough regarding a score. For all we know, the team that's up by 40 may actually be the inferior team and eventually need the points it's still trying to accumulate.

There's a reason we have to buy bigger hats here...

My bad. I shoulda realized the obvious sarcasm. No way a feller from Little Elm would have done as you suggested.

PS Did you boys get them size 9 caps in yet?

Where in Texas are you? NO ONE knows where Little Elm is. Which chapter are you in?

Check your private messages

I wouldn't say anything...
 

...but if it continued in the third qtr. EVERY little thing that team did would get flagged, I wouldn't hear requests for TOs and my white hat would probably be winding the clock every chance he gets.

I understand that mentality, and confess that when I see a coach doing what I would consider "running up the score", I get irritated. So I understand your motivation.

But I think you're asking for more headache than it's worth, and you're overstepping your bounds when you start becoming the arbiter of this sort of thing.

True story from my 1st year:

Two teams playing early in the season, call them Blue and White. Blue was up big quickly, mostly because of their defense. Defense had scored a couple of times, and set up most of the offense's scoring with turnovers, big sacks, etc. Game was something like 42-0 as we near halftime and they are still trying their darndest to get every point on the board, and i believe they did score once again right before halftime.

WH spends the entire halftime grumbling about his lack of sportsmanship, he should know better, etc, and instructs us to call the ticky-tack stuff - holding away from the play, the slightest little wiggle on the line, etc, even saying something like, "If you seem them break another one off, I'm SURE there was holding behind that play." And remember, I (and the other linesman) were rookies, so we do as we're told.

Turns out, however, that several of the members of the defense on Blue had to leave for some sort of school function (I don't remember if it was a dance, a concert, play, show, whatever, and I'm not sure I ever knew for sure). Anyway, we start calling the ticky tack stuff and probably thwart a drive. Everything close is in-bounds - trying to "Save White some pain" and get the game overwith. Lo and behold White scores. Again, we run a little clock and cause Blue some grief. White scores again and again. It's near the end of the 3rd quarter before WH calls us together and tells us to call things more normally.

White lost this game by less than a TD, and it bothers me to this day that my "veteran" leadership on that day caused me to do what I know now was probably wrong. We possibly cost the White team players quite a memory.

mbcrowder, I understand completely...
 

but I think your example is the exception and an extreme one at that. Plus for clarification, I would never do this in a varsity game. At that level it's up to the coaches to take care of it.

I agree that it's extreme. But I think it does illustrate that there may be reasons for things that are going on, that we don't know anything about. I would say at the very least that if we are going to try to steer things as mentioned above, we wait until much later than just halftime. Consider Houston vs Buffalo.

I'm speechless
 

I can't believe the discourse I just witnessed.

The fact that the thought of officiating a football game any different than fairly, with unflinching concentration on the rules, entered into your mind screams for you to get out of this vocation.

Those of us that have played at ANY level, and have the passion and love for the greatest game EVER, are puking in our hats at hearing just a hint that a football official would even fathom changing the way they officiate due to any circumstance.

You keep your focus on your keys, you see big, and you keep the kids safe to the best of your ability.

J

To whom are you replying, Jay?

I'm guessing to anyone who changes their officiating as Jay describes.

Correct...
 

Anyone who has even entertained changing the way they officiate this great game should reflect on their motivation for officiating football. I am not trying to call anyone out in particular...and I don't post very often... the subject matter of this particular thread caught me by surprise.

J

Disregard the initial "sportsmanship" comments, as I believe there is some difference of opinion there among those posting.

But are you implying that when you officiate an 8th grade B-game that's run 45 minutes late already on a school night, with the A-team waiting to play, and the score 40-0 in the fourth quarter, you don't do ANYTHING differently than you did when it was 0-0 in the first quarter?

Nope...
 

...absolutely not. My reply,which may have taken on an all-encompassing tone, was in response to the original thread.

J

You'd be crucified by most parents, coaches, officials, and trainers of officials I know if you were so rigid as to not understand the overall situation you are in. You have to be cognizant of the bigger picture sometimes. There are times when it's beneficial (even from the losing team's POV) for you to "help" the game move along.

I have a perfect example
 

The other night I was working a JV game, B was up by said 40+ points with ~2-1/2 mins. to go in the game. There was an obvious holding foul by A near B's sideline on a sweep play. I threw the flag, but A turned the ball over so we ignored my flag. My varsity WH was working BJ on this night picked up my flag for me and put it in his pocket. After the game he and another official who WHed for us that night told me that that is a perfect example of having presence and knowing the situation. They told me that I should have held the flag no matter what happened there, even if it cleared the guy for a score, it had no bearing on the outcome of a game. They both work JC ball here in CA and it is some of the best JC ball in the country. Most of these kids could go to D1 schools if it weren't for grades or social problems. There assignor wants it called that way. And just a little more info, this assignor has sent guys to the NFL. So you do change your officiating to fit certain situations. The rule books are printed B&W but the rules are never enforced that way...

I repeat...
 

...I may have made sweeping remarks in my responses, but, I repeat, my reaction was to the presumption that something unsportsman-like, was going on in the situation stated, and easing the pain of the team on the light end of the score by calling things you may not normally call, was even contemplated.

I understand the dynamics that occur in ugly games, as well as flawless, well-oiled contests, and your approach to officiating should conform to maintain the flow, but we are not here to try and make things right with the universe, just to enforce the rules, and keep the kids safe.

,