Hmmm..........what do you think?

[parepat]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

You refuse to see the big picture. Nothing we can do about that, I suppose.

But I will say this - the first time you pull out the rulebook on the field, you will hear a relentless never-ending litany of arguments about the rules from both sidelines. Do you really want this?

Yes - we on rare occasions make mistakes ... but to pull out the book every time we have a question DURING a game opens up a huge mess that you really don't want any part of.

The big picture is simply that you and those like you have an ego that overshadows the reason why you are out there.

Unlike you, I HAVE been in a game where we pulled out the book. Guess what, NONE of the things you described occured.

No one ever said that you pull out the book "everytime we have a question".

It simply doesn't happen.

I understand that you are confident in your rules knowledge, as am I. However, there will come a time at some point where both of us would benefit from access to the rule or case book. In those occassions it is my opinion that I would swallow my pride, go to the book and get the call right.

You and others like you feel that the harm of this outweighs the need to get the call right. I get it. I don't agree with it but I get it.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by parepat

The big picture is simply that you and those like you have an ego that overshadows the reason why you are out there.

Unlike you, I HAVE been in a game where we pulled out the book. Guess what, NONE of the things you described occured.

No one ever said that you pull out the book "everytime we have a question".

It simply doesn't happen.

This has nothing to do with ego - it has to do with perception. I HAVE been on the field when a rulebook was brought out during a disputed ruling. Granted - this was baseball, but the prinicipal is the same. As expected, the umpire was right, the coach (and TD as it turned out) was wrong. However - for the rest of the game it was a litany of "Why don't you pull out the rulebook over THAT one, blue!", and I'm told it carried over into that PU's next game. Pulling out the book to look something up that is not COMPLETELY abnormal only costs the officiating crew it's credibility, and VERY rarely helps anything.

I understand that you are confident in your rules knowledge, as am I. However, there will come a time at some point where both of us would benefit from access to the rule or case book. In those occassions it is my opinion that I would swallow my pride, go to the book and get the call right.

You and others like you feel that the harm of this outweighs the need to get the call right. I get it. I don't agree with it but I get it.

I admit that it's conceivable that our entire crew would miss one. But it's not a matter of "swallowing our pride" - it's a matter of demolishing our credibility.