When I officiate sports, I just kind of chuckle when I hear fans make comments about my calls or other calls; especially when they do not even know the rules. Actually, sometimes it is hard to not burst into outright laughter! Then you have the coaches! Like last night, I was the Line Judge for a Friday night football game. Now, I am a rules junkie, so to question the legality of my calls is not for the novice! On one play in the 1st half, I throw a flag for offensive holding on a play around left end. During the same play, the defender who was being held, grabs the offensive guy by the jersey and tosses him around and to the ground. So, since I carry only 1 flag, I throw my hat to signify another penalty - Defensive holding! The head coach went berserk - starts yelling - the defense can grab the jersey, the defense can do that. I promptly respond, No, coach, they cannot. He rants and raves and hollers for the referee to come talk to him. Anyway, I told the coach, by rule, and it is in rule 9, the defense cannot grab or grasp - only when to tackle the runner. He said, I played college football at Wofford and I know you can. I said, well I played in college, too, plus I know the rules. So, I would not be teaching that as a legal technique. After halftime, he comes back out and said, I played under Coach Mike Ayers at Wofford, he was FCS Coach of the Year and he taught our defensive lineman to grab the jersey. Me - Well, coach, he was wrong all that time. We talked more as I educated him! Oh, BTW, the above scenario ended in off-setting penalties and we replayed the down!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 22:27:12 +0000
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