Follow your intuition...and please don't tell him there is a basketball forum.

This may shock you, but the expectation that every officials action will ALWAYS be absolutely perfect, is an illusion. Although the officials we watch on Sundays are remarkably consistent and correct, they are still pursuing perfection, just like the rest of us (albeit likely from a little closer).

When they miss something, it's still called a "mistake" and although much rarer than at other levels, mistakes, life "stuff", happen. The remedy of course is to remain composed, review what's transpired, make whatever adjustments are necessary to get the situation right and then learn from the experience and add it to the pile of other mistakes you will endeavor never to repeat.

How would that shock me? In an ideal world every call would be perfect. Obviously that's not a realistic expectation. I agree with you.

I'm hardly nitpicking. I'm discussing major errors in administration or calls where there's a difference of opinion like the Gronkowski play.

I do officiate baseball.

I can understand why Tripplette didn't stop the game to give them a free timeout, but, this whole mess could have been avoided if he would have went with the LJ. I always look to the LJ for determining if it's a first down. If he's giving me a first down, as Referee, I'm giving the signal and we are moving the chains.

To followup:

The discussions that I participate in are ones that are of interest to me. I always like to get an officials perspective on things, especially if it's a sport I don't officiate myself.

I umpire baseball over the summer and just recently started doing in-season high school ball. I spend a lot of time reading on here and on Umpire Empire, among other sites, in an effort to better myself as an official and better my understanding of the game as a whole.

I don't officiate football, and I have no plans to officiate football, but I do still have an interest in rules and an official's perspective as to why things happen the way that they do. There have been calls I've disagreed with that, when explained from an official's point of view, made sense.

I realize the the bulk of my posts are in threads about officiating controversies, but I do read the other threads. I'm not going to post if I don't have anything to add to the discussion. I don't think I've been unreasonable, with maybe an exception early on in the WI-ASU thread. I'm certainly not on here to mindlessly bash officials.

The vibe of this post...of wanting to discuss and learn does not match the vibe set forth by claiming that "NFL officials are doing a fantastic job of embarrassing themselves in primetime games this year" and other previous posts in others threads that you have made.

I don't think this was an issue of measuring vs. not measuring. The 46 was the line to gain and the ball was obviously placed well short of the 46. There was no reason to stop the clock to measure. The reason to stop the clock was to correct the H and put the chains back where they belong based on the spot. I do question the spot since the L appeared to have the 46 but ceded to the H for some reason.

Mike Pereira was on a national radio show last night and they were talking about this situation. I just caught the last couple of minutes of it. He said that in the NFL, the HL should not move the chains at all until the R signals to him that it is a first down, which didn't happen since Tripplette was signaling third down before the snap.

There was probably a better way to put it, but there have been several high-profile mistakes (or perceived mistakes) in primetime games in the last few weeks. And to be fair, it's hard to imagine a more embarrassing chain of events than Sunday night.

Most of us have learned long ago, no matter how hard you suck on a whistle, that damn "tweet" is NEVER coming back. All it takes is an instant of distraction or loss of focus to create a mistake. What matters then, is how well we deal with our mistake.

Most on-field mistakes generate a little scar tissue we carry forward FOREVER to help prevent us from repeating the mistake. Other than that memory, there's little else of value to bother carrying forward, so the smart thing to do, is reset your focus and concentration and snap the ball for the next play.

Next week you'll have another opportunity to work your FIRST perfect game.

Honestly, I'm more likely to forgive a mistake borne of action (like you describe) than one borne of inaction (like the OP).

Action can get you into trouble as well. Personal example from a playoff game a couple years ago. Near the end of the first half, A runs a play that ends in bounds around the 5 yard line. Team tries to run FG unit on the field to a last second attempt. As I step back into my U position, A/K has 12 players in formation. I made sure it had been at least 3 seconds and double check my count. Flag/whistle for illegal substitution. Clock stopped with 2 seconds left.

B/R coach upset because 5-yard penalty still kept them in close FG range, but now they have an opportunity to get organized and not have to rush as much. We enforce the penalty and wound the clock quickly and A/K did not get the ball snapped in time anyway.

The lesson I learned is I should have let the play go because there is a chance they don't get the ball snapped. If they do and there is still time on the clock kill it at the snap. Stopping it when I did gave them an advantage. It's a good example of why I like the 10-second subtraction rule.

wouldn't using a penalty in order to conserve time count as an unfair act penalty?

I'm 99% certain they weren't doing it intentionally. This does not meet any of the NFHS unfair acts. There is specific rule coverage for this. They weren't repeatedly fouling. Nobody hid the ball under their jersey. Nobody was using the tee. There was no travesty in what they did.