You have now.
A couple of our elementary schools have flag games as fundraisers, and we always have more volunteer officials than we can use for those games.
Also, one of our youth leagues has an annual all-star game held in the local 100K seat D-I stadium. We volunteer for that game as well.
I'll bet a dollar every official with more than a few years experience has donated his time to call a game. We do it all the time when we officiate pre-season scrimmages. We officiate police vs firefighters fund-raising games. We officiate semi-pro fundraising games. We typically have the opportunity (and many do) to donate one game fee during the Breast Cancer Awareness month.
Wettstein, it appears you've had previous run-ins/encounters with officials that have somewhat soured your opinion of men/women in stripes. God knows we don't do it for the money. I get $56 for a varsity football game. From the time I leave my house/work for the stadium, until the time I get home, it can be 5-6 hours (much more for guys that have to travel longer distances). So we obviously don't do it for the money. We also don't do it for personal glory (because unless your name is Ed Hochuli, you're not a celebrity). We do it for the love of the game, for the love of the kids, and for the teamwork and camaraderie.
If you've never been an official, I highly recommend you give it a go. Friday night on a football field is like Saturday morning in a duck blind (literally can be just as cold
) or in a patch of CRP hunting pheasants.
The men who post on this forum understand their craft, and do respect the game and the coaches. If the coaches attended just one weekly officials meeting or study group and saw the preparation and discussion, I think they would have a better understanding of officiating.
Two stories:
Last year, I had a game that was hotly contested. Team with winning record (Team X) against team with losing record (Team Y) on losing record's field. The game was close in the first half. On the last play of the first half, Team X had the ball on their 30 yard line. The QB threw a backward pass to the wideout. The wideout broke a tackle, then ran back toward the middle of the field, making a big loop into the backfield juking more tackles. He ran straight at the line, then right before he cross the LOS, he threw a pass downfield. (So right now, all of the umpires are thinking the same thing...we have a broken play, so I probably have have a problem.) The ball was caught on the sideline, the runner then broke 3-4 more tackles and dove for the pylon to score. Team Y's coach came unglued. He wanted a flag for ineligibles downfield. I checked with my umpire and he gave me the "deer in the headlights look," so I knew he wasn't thinking about ineligibles, he was thinking only about illegal forward pass. Since it was the last play of the first half, he had a chance to chew on us for a few minutes after the try, then before the second half started, I stood on his sideline during the warmup so he could chew on me a little longer. And I said nothing to refute his claim that we should have had a flag. I'm positive my umpire missed linemen downfield. But then he said something that was a little over the top. He said, "You guys just don't care. You guys just show up and officiate the game, and you don't care. My staff was at my house for 6 hours on Sunday preparing for this game." I never flagged him (because when we miss a call, I let the coach vent and unless he uses the "7 words you can never say on television" loud enough for everyone in the stands to hear," I'm pretty much just listening). I really wanted to say, "hey coach, if you spend all that time preparing, you might want to include a little tackling practice."
Last night I did a 5A playoff game (#2 vs #15). Score was 42-0 with 2'30" left on the running clock. On 4th down, losing team's QB runs for his life and angles out of bounds. He's heading 45 degrees OOB, lets up, and has the ball tucked in when he hits the sideline. Right at the sideline, the pursuing DB chops him down. It was "bang bang," but based on the score, time, and circumstance, both my HL and I had a flag. We gave the ball to the winning team, marked off the 15 yards, and put the ball in play. Now the losing team's coaching staff is going nuts. (I even spent a little time on the microphone explaining that the losing team did not reach the LTG, it was a dead-ball foul, and so the enforcement would be backwards, not forwards). The losing team coaches could not understand the concept, even though my veteran HL explained in detail what had occurred and why the other team got the ball. (We looked at videotape last night, and the QB was about a foot OOB when he was hit, so I'm satisfied we got it right.)
Every official on this forum has similar stories. I'm typing all this Wettstein to make a small point. It's a "contest," but it's not a contest between us and the kids/coaches/fans. We wouldn't be on the field if our only intent was to get off the field. We also spend hundreds of hours in self-study, group study, and group meetings. We think football all of the time. We sneak time at work to study a rule or call another official to discuss a play. We have just as much passion for this game and for the kids that the coaches do.
The difference between coaches and officials? The coaches know the kids and the plays. The officials know the rules. The officials learn about the kids and the plays during the course of the game. The coaches learn about the rules during the course of the game.
