What is the dumbest thing you did this past season?
 

I'll start off with one that I would imagine being hard to top. I was the R in a state semi-final game. I'm conducting the coin toss and the home team wins and elects to defer. I immediately signal their choice. I then inform the visiting team of their remaining choices and they elect to receive. I then asked the home team captain which goal he would like to defend. He pointed and told me that he wanted to "defend this way." What he meant was that he wanted to kick that way. After a few seconds of discussion I determined which direction he really wanted. It was those few precious seconds that did me in. I lined the captains up and promptly signaled that the HOME team would be receiving! My U quickly reminded me of what happended. Not being able to find a hole large enough to hide in, my only recourse was to quickly inform the 2 head coaches what had just happened. The crew came together before the teams came out for the kickoff and I told them not to worry. Now that I was the one to get our one screw up for the night out of the way they could relax and work a perfect game. After the game in the locker room our clock operator (and fellow crew chief) looked at me and said, "What the hell was that?" I explained how I forgot what happened in just a few seconds. He told me that the state observer asked him what I was doing. He looked at him and said, "Don't worry, he's new.":eek:

Read about the A-11!

DAMN! Beat me to it, jaybird!

I'm the U in a Thanksgiving Day game with several thousand fans watching. Home team snaps from shotgun w/empty backfield from the 50 yard line and the QB immediately retreats while looking for a receiver. I head toward the LOS and catch the WR on my left crossing shallow planning to use me as a pick. I stop letting him and the defender cross safely in front of me just as the QB throws downfield on my left, while I get crushed by the TE who's crossing from my right.

He picks me right up off of the ground and I land a$$ first, whack the back of my head and am in la-la land for a second or two. I jump up, look downfield and see the HL with the ball just in from the sideline at the 3 yard line. So I dutifully hustle downfield to the hash in front of where the HL is standing, get the ball and spot it (I'm assuming 1st & goal from the 3).

Nobody says a word as I'm standing over the ball when I notice/realize the kicker is in and setting up a block for a try, just as he turns toward me and asks to have the ball spotted in the "middle of the field". The play had gone for a TD and no other crew member had told me, or maybe I was just so out of it I didn't hear anyone.

Don't remember the following kick-off, and a few plays latter at halftime in the locker room I got the what the hell happened out there?

Hard to call that dumb on your part, Roy. I'm a little irritated none of your co-officials saw you hit the ground. Or, if they did, why they didn't check to make sure you were OK and clear on what's going on. That's what I would have done, "hey, man, you OK? They scored a TD if you missed it; get ready for the try."

"hey, man, you OK? They scored a TD if you missed it; get ready for the try."

Or better yet, "man, what are you doing on the ground, looking for that Snickers?" ;)

Just teasing Roy. Hope everything is OK.

Just received my ratings. My little faux paux cost me a perfect score! I ended up with 4.9 out of 5.:(

Tore my ACL and medial meniscus on a pivot. Cost me the last two weeks of football and all of basketball. Still in physical therapy.

That's not dumb, you're just old!:D

REPLY: Garth...daggo66 is just jealous of us "old guys" and our ability to bounce back from such injuries :D .

Did you have the ACL reconstruction surgery? I also tore ACL and medial meniscus on a pivot along the sideline in a 2001 playoff game. Had the knee scoped to clean up the meniscus, but did not have the ACL reconstructed. Knee is wobbly but relatively stable. Still considering the recon surgery, but that's a long haul (about 6 months) in rehab and recovery. Doc told me the the 'mental' recovery (believing that the knee is back to 'normal') is about another 6 months.

Bob M,

I have had a "long term" torn ACL,:( :( , have had three scopes to clean up the miniscus and wear a Don Joy brace (the latest in a series of braces). It works fine. I never had the recon although one of my office colleagues did and it took him about a yr to "fully" recover. He is an avid tennis player and the reconstructed knee does great. I was never willing to invest the year.

REPLY: I have a Don Joy that doesn't quite fit right. It's too loose around the knee-cap. I guess the swelling had not fully subsided when I got fitted. The one year recovery/rehab you mentioned is precisely what my doc told me. He was once the Detroit Lions team doctor. I was hoping that some of the Barry Sanders 'magic' would rub off on me, but instead I think it was more like Colonel Sanders!:(

Bob M,

I started out with a "Lennox Hill", brace ala Joe Namath in 1981. I've seen a lot of technology improvements in the last 25+years. I had a Don Joy that was a little "loose" about 5 yr ago (it was 5+years old at the time) and the knee hyperextended one day, tore more miniscus and "locked up". After that scope, I got a new, better fitting brace which I been using for the past 5+ years without problems. One thing to check, put the brace on, stand up and try to slide the brace down toward your ankle. If it moves downward, that's bad and you need a new, better fitting one. If it doesn't, then you can get "thicker" condyle pads to take up some of the "room between" the sides of the brace and the knee cap.

It sounds like you are "better off" than I. I can't run much without the knee "flopping" about because of the laxity.

Sorry. Severe typing or brain malfunction. My post should have read that I tore my MCL not ACL.

The MCL has a much better blood supply and thus heals better and quicker than the ACL. Also, I did not tear it from the bone, rather I tore the ligament itself. They stitched the MCL and trimmed the meniscus.

The injury has nothing to do with age. There are several 20 somethings getting worked on at the same therapy clinic I use with the same or worse injuries. According to the surgeon they were "event" injuries. X-rays and MRIs show no sign of arthritis or any kind of deterioration.

I am undergoing a therapy plan used to put basketball players back on the court. It's intense and sometimes painful, but I stick to it.

REPLY: My injury was what I believe they call the "unholy triad" or something like that: torn ACL; torn MCL; torn medial meniscus. Definitely an "event" injury. My ACL is completely ruptured--'gone' is a better word. And because of the meniscus injury, arthritis is setting in. It's fun getting older.:(