Author Topic: Ever get accused...  (Read 3675 times)

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Offline walkintall

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Ever get accused...
« on: November 04, 2014, 01:05:41 PM »
...of asking a player to meet you at your vehicle after the game? I did...

This happened several years ago.

I was HL in a game that got heated and there were 3 disqualifications that happened at 2 separate times. Late in the 2nd quarter, myself and the U catch a B player throwing a punch in a pile to the kidneys of an A player.  ^flag and a disqualification is the result.

Early in the 3rd quarter, B made a great defensive hit on a receiver that broke up a pass play...one of those passes that hangs a receiver out to dry. After the ball is knocked out, the player crumples to the ground and is injured. B stands over him and roars and flexes like he is the incredible hulk. Of course, I  ^flag it. All of the players see it, so the A team runs to defend their player. The B team runs up to defend their player.

Everything settles down and we start discussing things. We have the original UNS and also 2 disqualifications. I learned that when B went "hulk" over A, 2 A players ran off the sidelines and onto the field. So, they were tossed. So, after the DQs were recorded and the yardage marked off, we gathered the two teams in the middle for a meeting and told them, "No more crap!"

I get back to the sideline and Bs coach is complaining about the box holder...said he was yelling at his players during the fracas. So anyway, I go speak with the box and he tells me he was yelling at "his" team to back off. So, I tell the coach he was yelling for his players to back off and coach says, "he can't yell at his players. He is to be impartial." I'm thinking that this is kind of a different circumstance, but I go back to the box and remind him to be impartial and not to "coach." I learned much later in the game that Bs coach and the box holder had had words during all this. If I had known that earlier, I could have had the box holder replaced.

So the game finished without further incident. With about a minute to go, in the game. The DQd B player that threw the kidney punch was almost in tears and was apologizing to me for the punch he threw. I told him he didn't owe me anything and that football is an emotional game and sometimes emotions get the best of us and to learn from it. Buzzer sounds and we go home, write everything up and all is hunky dory....

...until Monday.

I get a call from our assigning secretary asking me if I asked a B team player to meet me at my truck. :o I asked him, "What?" He says, "A b team parent told an administrator that a player apologized to you and you told him to meet you at your truck." I'm stunned. :!# I have to ask him if he is being serious or if he's playing a joke. He assures me over and over he is serious. He goes on to tell me actual words of the conversation I had with this kid, so I know for sure that whoever had complained actually heard the conversation. He also says I am to answer some questions from our state association head. I assure the secretary I have no idea what they're talking about and we hang up and I scratch my head wondering if this is some sort of set up.....ie...that that parent must have been the DQ'd kid's parent and he was out to get me...making me look like some sort of child predator.

So, I get on the phone and discuss it with other crew members and during a conversation with the U ^talk, I said, "Ya know what? I couldn't have asked a player to meet me at my truck after the game because my son was there." 

THAT'S when the answer came to me. My wife had had to work on this Friday night and I had no sitter, so I had to take my kid with me. It was a local school and, although my child did not attend there, he would have many friends to hang out with during the game. Well, late in the 4th, right after the kid apologized to me, I heard, "Hey daddy." I looked up to see my 11 year old son standing on the visitor's sideline behind the restraining rope. Well, with 3 ejections and all, I wanted to leave the game as quickly as possible and definitely didn't want to have to search for him afterwards. So, I looked up at the clock and there was 1 minute left in the game. So, guess who I told to be at my truck when that clock hit zero?

Email was sent with my explanation and then, everything really was hunky dory.

Offline Etref

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Re: Ever get accused...
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2014, 02:42:47 PM »
One of those where they hear what they want to hear!
" I don't make the rules coach!"