Don't you love it when players are honest?
 

I called a facemask penalty this past week, and when the coach was asking me for the number, the player who I was about to name, turned to the coach and yelled to him, "It was me Coach". Talk about an honest player, usually it would take an act of God to get a kid to admit to something.

How was this player on the roster sheet with no name? Shouldn't his parents have named him by now? And why were you the fortunate one to name him?

From time to time I'll have trouble getting a number on a face mask penalty because it was in a pile of players making a tackle, but you'll catch that hand up in the mask. I've gone into the huddle before and asked the guys to own up to it, and usually they do.
It's nice to see some of the players respect the game enough to recognize, and admit, their mistakes.

And if they don't own up to it you can always tell them that you are going to tell the coach it was #55. Usually #55 will rat out the right player so he don't get in trouble.

I'm finding this season that the level of sportsmanship among players is improving slightly, even as the level of sportsmanship by [assistant] coaches continues to decline dramatically.