So, You Wanna Learn Football 3 : The Officials

On the gridiron, there is an offense, defense, special teams unit and of course, the officials. The officials, the guys dressed like zebras, are a tough breed.  Fans love them, jeer at them, throw things at them and still the game of football would not be the same without them.  Many think all officials are referees, but that is a misnomer. There is only one referee on the field and six other officials:

The Referee – He is like the boss of all the officials and gets to be on TV the most. He gets the microphone and announces all the penalty infractions to the crowd, the coaches, etc. On the field,  he stands 10 yards behind the Quarterback and watches for  players to break such rules as hitting the Quarterback late or hitting the Quarterback too hard which are known as “late hit” or “unnecessary roughness” penalties.  Now, you would think with his vantage point, the ref would get these calls right all the time, but he doesn’t. Why? Well, a good Quarterback is also a great actor who can fake injury to get a penalty called on the other team.

Quarterbacks that give Oscar-winning performances for referees:

Tony Romo – QB of the Dallas Cowboys and the King of getting penalties on defending players.  He just knows how to fall and fake injuries like no other.  Okay, everyone says how tough he is, but to be honest, part of me thinks Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, exaggerates Romo’s boo boos to bait other teams into thinking he can’t do his job.

Jay Cutler – Quarterback of the Chicago Bears – Jay Cutler spends more time eating grass or Astroturf than he does drinking Gatorade. He has no offensive line or players who are supposed to stop him from getting pummeled.  With so much down time, can you fault this man from complaining to the ref s every chance he gets that the defense is not playing fair?

Donovan McNabb – He has and will always be the master of the get up and then pretend to be hurt and fall down routine which usually comes at the end of the game when his team down points, and he can’t complete passes.

Rex Grossman of the Redskins and Philip Rivers of the Chargers – these two share the title of King of the Whiners.  They bitch about everything and somehow believe that they should never be touched when they are on the field.

Quarterbacks who suck at acting:

Eli Manning – poor Eli, he tries so hard to feign being hurt at the hand of a “bad defender” but he just lacks that emotional element that many of his colleagues possess.  Referees see his awkward acting stunts and just ignore them.

Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers – when one is built like 6-foot-five brick wall, one gets few unnecessary roughness calls. It took a motorcycle accident, appendectomy and two sexual assault allegations to get Roethlisberger off the field for a few weeks, so a few 300-pound linebackers don’t really scare him. In fact, defenders just bounce off of him.

The Umpire – He has two very special jobs. He is in charge of the coin toss and he gets to wipe the ball dry on rainy days between plays.  Okay, he does other important stuff too. He counts the number of players on the field and makes sure everyone has the right equipment on.  He also helps with the holding calls.

Holding is when an offensive player tries too hard to keep a defender from tackling the guy with the ball.  An offensive lineman can bump guys and push them back, but they can’t hold onto jerseys, pull down pants or tackle defenders to the ground.  Defenders can’t tackle offensive linemen either.  In theory, the only guy who gets tackled is the one running or holding the ball.

Head Linesman –  This official keeps tabs on the guys on the sidelines that work the 10-yard- chains. I don’t know where he thinks they are going, but it’s his job to know where they are at all times.  Also, he watches for “False Start” and “Offsides” penalties.

A false start is when the offense moves before the ball is snapped or thrown under the Center’s legs to the Quarterback.  Offsides is sort of the same thing except for it’s on the defense. When the defense goes Offsides, it is usually because the offense tricked them into believing the ball was going to be snapped and it wasn’t.  Some Quarterbacks are really sneaky and use body language tricks to draw the defense Offsides.  While that is not really legal, it is often overlooked by the officials, so it is up to the defense to get revenge on the Quarterback by smushing him into the ground as soon as possible.

Working with the head linesman is the line judge, back judge, field judge and side judge.  Their jobs are to watch everything else and look for rule infractions such as “Pass Interference”.

Pass interference rules say that players on both defense and offense can go after the ball when a Quarterback throws it; however, neither can grab nor tackle another player or cause a player to trip before an attempt is made to catch that ball. Pretty much, these players must look at the ball as it sails through the air and try and forget about anyone around them who are waiting to knock their kidneys out if and when they catch the ball. Any contact made before that gets penalized.

How do officials let teams know there are penalties? They have flags and hats for that.  They throw the yellow flag on the ground which lets everyone know there is a penalty on the field.  When a player steps out of bounds, the line judges will throw their hats. They will also throw their hats if the other officials are out of penalty flags. I don’t know why they all just carry more flags, but hey, who am I to judge a century of officiating habits.

 

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