Handling Brawls

[Mike Simonds]

Gosh, this is something that we all need to think about. Sounds like this situation is beyond the scope of preventive officiating. I'm going to bring this up at our meeting.

What I would think the crew should do is to start taking numbers (perhaps the wing officials would be responsible for players in the team box area and the R and U would be responsible for players on the field) and gather together for mutual safety while getting security and/police people on the field as soon as possible. Perhaps one member of the crew can carry their cell phone to call the proper authorities.

I know in spite of our best efforts something like this may happen. The main concern would be to stay safe. Maybe obtaining a roster of both teams before the game would be a good idea. Instead of taking down numbers just say all of them should be: arrested/suspended/expelled/prosecuted/etc.