conflict of interest?

[bkdow]

I've done this twice. One time while refereeing Soccer, I officiated a game for my now-defunct alma mater. I had to call a penalty shot with time expired in a tie ball game. I hold that it was clearly the correct call, but I was totally shreded the next day in the local newspaper. I vowed that I would never do it again.

My first varsity football game was hosted by the school that my son was a freshman. I was the umpire and didn't do anything to impact the 51-7 outcome but afterwards realized that I probably should not have allowed myself in that position.

I have been officiating sports since I was 12 (now 41) and believe that I can be completely objective without regard to who the opponents are, however, as one D1 official said in our summer conference said, "do not put yourself in a position where there can be even an appearance of a conflict of interest."

I recited my vow again to never allow it to happen again. It's not whether we can do the job correctly, it's completely how the team will perceive a close call. The same reason that we do not treat one coach like an old friend and the opposing coach stoaiclly.