23 – Phillips

78 – Tiven

11:18 – Ben Wallace grabs Brook Lopez’s arm in the post. Easy call for Joe Crawford.

10:32 – Tayshaun Prince gets in Joe Smith’s space, but Smith fails to get vertical before contact is made. Another Crawford whistle.

10:22 – Devin Harris bumps and displaces Stuckey on way to a shot. Crawford no-call.

10:13 – Travis Outlaw gives a slight shoves to Austin Daye trying to get a board. Phillips sees it (right in front of him) and nails him. Great job establishing that kind of play as a no-no. Of course, Daye is so slight he looks like any short of shove would put him into the second row.

9:18 – Rip Hamilton gets double-teamed as he tried to move along baseline. He gets Lopez in the air, which is good and should have drawn a foul as he came down on Rip and bumped him toward the baseline, threatening the boundary. Unfortunately, Phillips is straight-lined and misses the contact, though, I’m not sure how he could have moved to see it. Rip throws the ball off the back of the backboard for a turnover. Minus for Phillips, but a slight one.

8:44 – Crawford forgets which team is going which way. Clearly sees the ball go off Lopez, but points the wrong way. He quickly calls a “my bad” and corrects himself. Excellent awareness of brain-fart error. If you’ve never done that, I’d say you’ve never officiated a full-court basketball game.

8:33 – Stuckey impedes Harris on way to rack. Crawford should have seen and called that, I think, but props to Phillips for seeing the quick hands on display when Stuckey swats away the shot by Harris after the contact. Correct no-call after a questionable no-call.

7:15 – Tevin finally blows his whistle and promptly makes the wrong ruling on a ball that looked like it hit Wallace, but actually hit Lopez. Ended up getting corrected, so nice work ultimately.

6:44 – Austin Daye saves ball. Correctly ruled by Crawford. Excellent positioning and judgement.

6:35 – Wallace mugged on put-back by Harris. Gimme call for Crawford.

5:25 – Stuckey mostly blows by Outlaw, who puts his body all over Stuckey as he goes in and misses the lay-up. Tevin didn’t have to think too hard about that one.

4:37 – Derrick Favors gets the ball in the post. Goes up for a shot, Daye hits his arm on the way up and then does that thing where they put their arms straight in the air like they were meant to do in the first place. Tevin watching intently and gets the call.

3:58 – Wallace camped out just outside the little semi-circle. Harris hoping to get the block. He didn’t because Crawford knows what he’s doing. Nice work.

2:47 – Wallace gets pass as he’s running the lane. Terrance Williams looks like he gets all ball as Wallace is in the air passing him, but seems to catch Wallace in the face in the aftermath, which needs called. Tevin seemed to see a tough play all the way through. Unfortunate for Williams, but the right call.

0:50 – Tayshaun gets called for contact on Favors on a shot. Does not appear to be any contact and Phillips, who called it, would have had to have seen through Favors to see any, really. Maybe he saw something, but I sure didn’t.

Q2

10:28 – Bynum clips Farmar on his way to the basket. Easy call.

9:45 – McGrady just holding the arms of #27 with his back to the basket during a rebounding situation. Crawford probably baffled by the entire situation, but still made the call.

8:02 – Double dribble called by Tevin, but I’m starting to wonder when someone is going to get Favors for his illegal screens. He is getting a late knee in there each time.

5:20 – Maxiell goes strong for a dunk. Lopez too late to put much contact on, but bothers to try a little and gets the ‘and one’ for his troubles. Good call by Phillips.

4:55 – Villanueva gets a foul on the floor courtesy of Tevin and some mutual grabbing and pushing with Humphries. Could have gone either way, but looks like Villanueva started it.

3:55 – Harris fouls Prince from behind on a breakaway. Good hustle and catch by Crawford.

1:39 – Stuckey absolutely explodes to the basket. Humphries comes over late. Crawford unlikely to get an easier call tonight.

1:14 – Finally, Crawford tags Favors on an illegal screen. Young man has to start learning!

Q3

8:11 – Prince fouled by Outlaw on a jumper from the wing. Those can be hard to see. Nice call by Tevin.

7:34 – Phillips should have seen and called Lopez contacting Wallace from behind on a rebound situation. Bad miss. It’s one of those fans will expect to see called, even if they are incorrectly screaming for “over the back.”

7:16 – Stuckey is too quick on that play for me to see what Crawford saw. Morrow seemed to be playing decent defense, but admittedly looked a half-step behind the whole way, so there was likely contact somewhere. It did take place right in front of Crawford.

7:05 – Daye hand and body all over Harris for an and-one. Crawford on the job.

4:22 -Tiven needed to get that play cleaned up as Lopez was trying to wrest the ball clear from the reaching hands of Stuckey and Wallace. I think he could have saved himself some trouble by calling contact on the original rebound, especially since he decided to go with Stuckey as the guilty party, when Wallace seemed to make more contact.

1:58 – Williams got a lot of contact from behind on that rebound situation. Crawford makes a needed call there. Wildly out of control.

1:47 – Phillips gets Maxiell for a walk. Good call.

0:47 – Hamilton nailed for trying to sneak a hand in on Williams as he tries to back Rip down. Crawford again.

0:36 – Damien James gets an and-one when Gordon taps the arm on a fade-away. Earned that call from Tiven.

0:34 – Goaltend against Maxiell.

q4

11:37 – Bynum grabby right in front of Crawford. Easy pickens.

10:18 – another one of those ‘why bother’ fouls. Bynum was going to score. I guess the contact from Williams could have disrupted the shot, but it didn’t. Tiven and Phillips on a double-whistle, giving each other a nod acknowledging the fact.

9:59 – James gets a phantom call from Tiven on a Maxiell jumper. Could not have been less contact. That’s a miss.

9:47 – Crawford cleaning up the messy D by Villanueva. Easy block call.

8:55 – Petro shoves Maxiell in the pain on a rebound situation. Maxiell looked to embellesh the shove, though. Tiven probably has the right call.

8:24 – Maxiell with some more play-acting. This one seems a little more obvious, but not to Phillips, who hits Lopez for a hold.

7:06 – Maxiell didn’t have to embellesh that one. Lopez with a slap AND shove. Tiven gets the call.

6:31 – Devin Harris grabs McGrady for a sloppy foul Crawford has no choice but to call.

6:05 – Gordon gets Humphries in the air, giving Crawford more easy work.

5:42 – Villanueva had good position on Lopez, but his left arm seems to be doing some dirty work, or so says Crawford. Too bad.

5:21 – Phillips seems to miss Villanueava shoving Harris from behind on a break-away lay-up attempt, as well as Harris hitting Villanueva in the face with his off arm. Or he decided to pass on both bits of contact. Not the right decision in my book.

4:55 – On another breakaway, Phillips does get Villanueva who, admittedly, gave him no choice.

4:48 – Williams gets hit with a ticky-tack foul away from the ball on Wallace by Crawford. I’m looking at that as some preventative maintenance. Weird, but giving the benefit of the doubt to Crawford.

4:25 – Outlaw now hits Wallace near mid-court. It would appear the Nets are doing hack-a-Ben, so now I get why Crawford is making those calls. Seems like an intentional foul might be differently penalized, but I don’t write the rules.

3:10 – and-one for Tayshaun. Outlaw just not quick enough to stay in front of him as he goes to bucket.

2:53 – Tiven could have gotten Maxiell for a bump as Harris drove the lane. Negative work.

2:24 – Gordon bumps Harris way out top. Crawford blows the whistle.

0:57 – Gordon again a step slow guarding Harris. Bump on drive and shot. And-one situation. Correctly called by ?

0:24 – That ball went off the fingertips of Williams. Phillips ruled otherwise. Poor call on a tough play.

Most sports fans will recall a similar arrival of two new guys to the roster in Boston a few years ago to create a strong triumvirate of stars who delivered a team from perennial lottery to a championship. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce to form what was, until ‘The Decision’ easily identified as ‘The Big Three’ as far as the NBA was concerned.

While the three guys I watched closely in last night’s game don’t have nearly the name recognition, the fans were no less moved by their work.

Dan Crawford, Tony Brothers and Brian Forte were the officials for last night’s season opener which drew record-high ratings, with an estimated 7 million-plus people catching all three trios displaying their craft on TNT.

Go anywhere else to read about the basketball itself. I don’t have anything to add that hasn’t been written a thousand times.

My interest is in the officiating.

So, with no further ado…

#45 Brian Forte

If I wish to be seen as objective, being critical of officials who do not have strong performances simply will have to happen. Hence, let me begin with the obvious from last nights game.

Brian Forte did not have a good game.

The obvious bad call was the block(Q3-4:32)  given to Pierce when James barreled right through him on the run and out of control. Forte was hustling to keep up with the play which went the other direction in a hurry, but seemed to have a good look at it, which makes it all the more puzzling as to how he decided that was a defensive call. Certainly, as was raised by some of the television guys, it was the sort of call that makes the public believe that certain players get better treatment from the officials and, while Pierce is certainly a star, the NBA doesn’t have a bigger star than James right now.

Forte also showed some inconsistencies in how he handled travelling. Early in the second quarter, Forte called Wade for an extra step on a drive to the basket. Looking at it in slow motion, I’d be hard-pressed to either fully endorse or disagree with that call. However, early in the fourth quarter, Rajon Rondo makes a similar drive from a similar angle and position with Forte in the same spot on the sideline, but does not get called on it. Even at live speed, it was much clearer a candidate for a call, but Forte let it slide. The call on Wade caused a turnover and ended up getting a technical called on the Miami bench, whereas the Rondo play ended in a basket for Boston. When you piece it together like that and consider how close in appearance the two plays were, an official needs to be consistent on how they call it. Turns out a big swing of points in this situation.

On another play early in the game, Rondo finds himself running side by side with Bosh, at which point Rondo takes a quick cut left into Bosh, clearly initiating the contact, and stumbles, drawing the call. No doubt the home fans watching casually would demand a call there and be sure it should be on the defense, but the only call to be made here should have been offensive. Otherwise, you need to let it go. Bosh probably should have been smarter than to just idly run next to the guy, and Rondo certainly deserves credit for a heads-up play because it worked exactly the way he wanted it to, but only because Forte kicked the call. A better decision would have punished Rondo.

Generally speaking, the concept of nailing who was guilty of initiating contact was not a strong suit for Forte last night.  Late in the third, he called Ilgauskas for a block when Glenn Davis was clearly at fault for the bump. In fact, I’m not sure what Ilgaskas could have done differently; he looked like he was surrounded by crocodiles and was trying to not get bit. Maybe that’s why Forte figured he was guilty.

I don’t want to continue harping on Forte, though. He blew his whistle a LOT last night and got a lot of calls right. In fact, his percentage was better than anyone shooting the ball regularly for either team, but officials don’t get to go, say, 6-for-24 and expect an award. In fact, they’d be unlikely to keep their job.

And, Forte had his moments. There was a play along the sideline where Brothers was too close to see Ilgauskas stick his knee in the path of Marquise Daniels to try to free James for a break to the basket; Forte saw it and helped make the right call for the situation and the game. While it was not his primary area of responsibility at that time, he was able to help get the right call made.

#25 Tony Brothers.

For my money, Brothers’ best work last night came when he did not blow his whistle. There were a few plays on which he was the covering official where a player or coach showed by their reaction they thought there should be a call, but Brothers maintained silence, which, upon review, appeared to be the best possible response.

There was a play in the third quarter where there was some incidental contact between Pierce and James that seemed to throw James off his course a little bit, but wasn’t necessarily a foul. The ball ended up in the hands of Ilgauskas under the basket, who was then hacked by Davis, which WAS called by Brothers. I thought it was a great example of letting a play develop through some incidental ticky-tack stuff to get a much better foul for an NBA-level game.

Brothers later passed on some contact on Wade who seemed to want Rondo for some phantom hold or something after he missed a lay-up. Anything Rondo did against the rules was done well enough it wasn’t picked up by the camera, but it looked like a completely innocent job by Rondo and, really, not very good defense; Wade just missed. He showed his frustration, seeming to want a call there. If anything, I’d have liked to have seen Brothers get him for protesting under the new rule allowing the referees to give technical fouls for overly emotive displays in regard to officiating. Would have been appropriate, plus a nice way to see the rule broken in. Maybe Brothers felt bad for him considering Wade was having a horrible game.

#43 Dan Crawford

Simply, I thought Crawford had an outstanding game last night.

He was consistent in his calls, to be sure, but also was pretty good in what he decided to call and what he decided to pass on.

Loved it.

Late in the first quarter, Crawford hit James with an offensive foul when he plowed into Davis. A big guy like that has to work hard to get position on a guy as fast as LeBron. When he succeeds, you’re happy when he doesn’t still get nailed for a block. Great hustle deserves a reward, especially for a guy as big as ‘Big Baby!’

I also liked that Crawford wasn’t afraid to hit the same guy twice in quick succession. Midway through the second, he correctly saw and called Daniels for sticking his knee and hip in the path of Wade, who was driving to the basket. Less than a minute later, he caught Daniels (looking through several bodies, I might add) pulling on Wade’s jersey as he tried to break away to get open. Some officials seem to shy away from giving a guy two fouls so quickly, which is really the wrong way to look at it. If a guy is breaking the rules, I always hope he gets caught. This was a great example of officiating the game as it’s being played and not worrying about what the coaches or fans might think when they look at the stats later.

There was also a nice bit of teamwork by Crawford and Brothers later in the game on a ball that went out-of-bounds on either Rondo or Eddie House near a sideline. Even slowed down in high definition, it was difficult to say who was the last to touch the ball. The two referees conferred and immediately realized neither had the right view of it and decided to go with a jump ball. Sometimes the right, if difficult, thing to do is admit you missed something. The game moves very fast even at the high school level; it can be incredibly difficult to see things as they happen. When you’re dealing with some of the best athletes in the world, I’m pretty sure it is even more-so the case. Great way to work together and do the right thing.

Though, I think it went out on Rondo, when it comes down to it.

Ultimately, the officials, percentage-wise, had the best game of the three teams on the floor. It wasn’t the best basketball you’re likely to see out of either the Celtics or Heat this year, to be honest, but nor have you necessarily seen the best from Forte, Brothers or Crawford either.

11:19 Garness sticks his shoulder into Wade. Payback? Maybe, but he also got the foul call. Forte on the job there.

10:25 Wade drives the lane. Shaq clearly is a step slow and hammers him on the shot. No call. Wade still nearly makes the bucket. That’s a pretty bad no-call. Wade had a pretty clear path to the basket otherwise. If Miami’s game plan to mask some of the size issues is to get the Boston bigs in foul trouble, they’re going to need those obvious calls at the very least. Forte should have had a great look at that one.

9:10 Rondo clearly initiates contact with Chris Bosh as they run down the court side by side. Giving the foul to Bosh is horrible, unless you’re punishing him for not being smart enough to know that he should get away because if Rondo bumps him and goes down like a German soccer player, which he did, he’s picking up the foul. Forte won’t like what he sees when he gets the game film. Smart play by Rondo, though.

5:15 LeBron backs Pierce down in the post with a LOT of contact and displacement. I don’t really love that sort of basketball, but it’s never going to be officiated out of the game. That’s the NBA I guess. Forte probably not meant to call that.

4:22 “That was on the rim, man! Come on!” The live TV angle doesn’t really let you see whether LeBron got away with a goaltend on Rondo’s layup. Maybe we’ll get a replay…I guess not. Crawford had no chance of seeing that from just in front of the Boston bench. Brothers looking from same side as camera, probably not a great look. Can’t see how far behind the play Forte is, but he’s probably the only one to have a shot at seeing if it hit the rim. Close.

2:49 LeBron chest bumps Pierce from the side as Pierce goes to the basket. A foul you’d like to see called, but I don’t think anyone had a good angle to have seen it. Forte would have to have been able to see through Pierce to see it.

1:43 Great draw of an offensive foul by Glenn Davis on LeBron. I’m glad they got that one right; big man who moves that well deserves his proper reward. Though, Pierce was mugging James down the lane. Crawford on the spot with that one.

11:06 Assistant coach David Fizdale doing the arms out, stomping, ‘What the FISH’ thing, which got him a technical. (Travel-Forte) Reminds me I need to be better about making sure assistants know full well they need to filter their thoughts through the head coach, as only the man in charge has rights to speak.

9:34 Marquise Daniels buries his shoulder in Wade’s chest and Wade goes down like he was shot. That needs to be called every time, even without the dramatic flop provided by the offended player. The idea Daniels even attempted to get away with it leads me to believe it doesn’t get called enough. Good call, Forte.

9:19 I don’t know if Bosh “thought there was contact” as claimed by the commentator, but the only contact on that play was initiated by Bosh himself. Fine no-call by Crawford, who seems to be having a strong game.

8:12 Paul Pierce took a bump by Wade and is either the worst actor ever, or really did just get hit just right because his collapse to the floor was even less graceful than what you’d expect from Shaq. Gotta support the no call by Brothers, who followed that immediately with a nice hustle to be in position to get Nate Robinson (Go Rainier Beach!) on the charge. In fairness, it was an easy call, but still good hustle.

7:52 Doc Rivers doesn’t like it, but Dan Crawford made a GREAT call right there. As Wade drove the baseline, Daniels definitely tried to get his knee in the way. Certainly would be hard to see from the Boston bench, but it’s an excellent call by Crawford.

7:05 Crawford continues to see everything, looking deep into the paint to see Daniels pulling on Wade’s jersey. Excellent display of officiating tonight.

6:10 Forte got someone on a clumsy defense of a James shot in the post. Couldn’t see the contact, but it looked enough like a foul.

5:29 Robinson bites on the fake and goes to the air. House dribbles to the right to get a clearer look at the basket. As he does so, Robinson clearly kicks his left foot out in the direction of House. Not clear if there was contact, but Forte is right there. House sure thinks there should have been a call, though.

5:17 Haslem nearly had position, but maybe did stick the knee out a bit. Good catch by Forte.

2:13 Crawford has to call Haslem for jumping on Shaq’s baq, but Shaq could just as easily have been nailed for pushing Haslem at the top of the key to create space. I’d have preferred seeing that called. Haslem had NO chance. Sorry Dan. Still love your game, though.

1:47 Crawford back in action as he catches Pierce moving laterally trying to take a charge from LeBron. Not sure the complainers aren’t a little biased. Pierce has been done hard a few times tonight, but this was not one of them.

0:36 Haslem gets a little touch foul trying to guard Garnett. Too bad for him, but he didn’t stay vertical there. Brothers had a clear look across the lane from the trail position.

0:21 Broadcast team giving that foul to Shaq, but Brothers blew his whistle before Shaq made contact on Bosh. If Shaq got the foul, Brothers initially was going to give it to Garnett and changed his mind, which wouldn’t be a great thing, I don’t think. half

10:58 Wade got Shaq to move into him, despite the fact Shaq had all day to set his position.

10:32 Shaq clobbers LeBron. Big fella a step slow and gets nailed twice in quick succession. Easy call for Forte.

10:08 Rondo over-enthusiastically goes after a pass and ends up displacing Arroyo. Rivers upset at call, though it was the obvious and correct call for Forte. I’m guessing it’s one of those situations where coaches think teams should always have the same number of fouls called on them.

9:39 Forte suddenly has the busy whistle. Bosh moving very slow picking up Pierce off the switch. Another easy call for blocking, which is all Pierce seemed to want from that.

8:45 Anthony all over Shaq on the put-back attempt. Obvious call that needs made.

7:40 Anthony again fouls Shaq, unable to hold his ground. Forte again with the call.

6:03 Not sure what Brothers saw, but Wade got the foul for reaching his hand very quickly toward the ball before realizing he wasn’t really going to strip it from Shaq as he goes to the bucket. At best, a touch foul. Harder fouls have been let go tonight.

5:16 Brothers gets Davis for hacking away at Ilgauskas after correctly not getting Pierce for body on LeBron. Great possession for Brothers.

4:37 Ball out on Rondo MAYBE and that’s only after slowing it down big-time. Neither guy watching had a good look at it, so they opted for the jump ball. More excellent officiating. Brothers and Crawford did the right thing there; great work.::

4:32 Forte makes an awful call giving a block to Pierce. LeBron just barrelled him over. Indefensible. Dude kicked that call. I’m bummed for him. Pierce can’t catch a break and maybe even got hurt on that play?

2:01 I really hope Forte didn’t just call Ilgauskas for blocking there. Davis initiated every bit of what little contact was there. I’m hoping it was LeBron for a bump I couldn’t see because, otherwise, I’m disagreeing yet again with Forte.

1:51 Forte redeems himself a little here, nailing Ilgauskas for an illegal screen when he sticks his leg out to impede Daniels. Not sure why he’s watching the ball way up there from the lead position, but he did get the right call.

0:51 I’ve liked the work of Crawford for the most part, which is the only reason I’m second-guessing this call that went LeBron’s way because is REALLY looked like he blew right into Davis on that one.

4th 11:12 Brothers tags Jermaine O’Neal for an offensive foul. Close, but it did look like Haslem did a good hustle job of quickly stealing position. Nice job.

11:03 Crawford gets Ilgauskas for an illegal screen. Guilty as charged. Don’t make that face.

10:53 Crawford all over Ilgausgas, as the big man makes a sloppy swat at O’Neal as he drives. Easy call. 9:43 Rondo just walked far worse than Wade did earlier in the game in front of the same official. Forte needs to be consistent if he’s going to call those close travel situation.

9:07 Forte has to call Haslem there. He didn’t mean to do it, but he tripped Rondo.

8:43 Wade called for the charge. Davis sliding a little on that one. I think it was Forte on the call, too.

4:59 Wade complaining loudly about not getting a call from Brothers. Didn’t look like he had anything to whine about and Brothers definitely could have hit him with a tech with that new rule.

4:51 Jones sloppily fouls Pierce on a three attempt. Easy call for Forte.

4:38 I support calling some hand-checking fouls, but Garnett didn’t appear to actually have his hands on Bosh there. Another Forte call.

4:28 Bosh flails at ball, but hits Garnett. Easy call for Crawford.

3:30 Garnett didn’t make any effort to disguise that one. He hammered Haslem. Crawford cleans it up.

2:53 Get off the court, Doc! 1:37 Forte gets Bosh for a block. Solid call.

1:15 Garnett hit with moving screen away from the ball. Right call by Forte; wrong decision by KG.

0:28 Crawford hits Wade with a push near the dividing line. Solid.

43-Dan Crawford 25-Tony Brothers 45-Brian Forte

It was a catch.

There is no shortage of topics being discussed in the aftermath of this ruling. I’ve read proclamations this was hard evidence that gambling among NFL officials is rampant. I’ve read fans on both sides of the Detroit-Chicago fence saying it was a bad call. I’ve read fans on both sides of that same fence saying it was, technically, the correct call. More than anything else, I’ve read that a lot of people think this really should call for a rewriting of the rule.

With the exception of the gambling piece, which I find to be somewhere between Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck on the crazy-alarmist scale, I found myself of all those opinions and more yesterday.

As a long-time football watcher, I saw a catch and touchdown.

As a long-suffering Lions fan, I saw a miraculous scoring drive capped by an outstanding catch to somehow snatch a victory in a game in which my favorite team had exhibited relatively few signs on life on offense after quarterback Matthew Stafford was injured late in the second half.

As an official, I thought I saw a touchdown, but wondered whether the ball coming loose after striking the ground wasn’t going to be discussed and/or reviewed. Upon review and disallowing of the catch, the football watcher and Lions fan were understandably puzzled, but the official’s first reaction was that it was an opportunity to really gain a better understanding of the rule and its application. After all, a man who has learned and accomplished much more in officiating the game and its rules than I could ever hope to do took a nice long look at the same video replays I was watching and concluded it was, indeed, not a catch.

After quite a bit of reviewing the play and reading the rules and accompanying ‘note’ being cited over and over again in the media in defending the call, I think I’m pretty confident in saying they really just kicked that call.

And that rubs football watchers, Lions fans, and football officials the wrong way pretty much every time, though the football official is always going to be the most-understanding if not the only ones who will offer any sympathy whatsoever.

Well, there are the handfuls of sports writers who want to be on the other side of fan reaction, who write columns about how the officials got it right and cite the rules and notes they don’t actually understand, but figure they’re pretty safe to agree.

They deserve no sympathy, but that’s for another time.

Beginning with the basics of the situation, from an officiating standpoint, you have to determine when the pass in the air is no longer a loose ball (by definition, a pass is a loose ball). If the ball is caught, it is no longer a loose ball and is then in possession of a player. Otherwise, a ball could become dead and, hence, no longer a loose ball, if it comes into contact with the ground inbounds or out-of-bounds, or touches someone or something that is out-of-bounds.

I’m going to disregard all the other ways the ball would become no longer loose here because they don’t apply. You know, the ball striking a dog running loose on the field, for example.

It was this out-of-bounds thing that really got me thinking about the play critically, to be honest, so that’s where I’ll start.

Watching the left hand of Calvin Johnson as he was going through the ‘process’ of completing the catch (which is a ridiculous phrase, when you hear it), it gets very near to the end line, which would make him out-of-bounds well before the ball strikes the ground and comes loose. Now, I don’t have the film the NFL does and am, hence, unable to determine whether that hand did actually contact the end line where it looked like it might have. If we just decide that it did touch the end line, however, it puts a different light on the entire play.

With the ball dead at that point, you then would have to decide whether a catch has been completed. Otherwise, the ruling would be that the player was out-of-bounds before catching the ball.

That would be a tough sell in any situation because I think we all agree that Johnson had exhibited up to that point pretty much everything you would require from a receiver in what you look for in ruling a catch. He certainly secured the ball with his hands before the ball touched the ground and he also certainly touched the ground inbounds with both feet (and a knee…and both buttcheeks…and a hand before it potentially slid out-of-bounds).

I admittedly don’t have access to the NFL rule book. I’ve seen it. It’s massive. It’s a LOT more massive than the rule books we use at the high school level. Hence, there is a certain level of the unknown here, but I’ve yet to see anything that would dissuade me from defining that play, at that point, as a catch.

I do have one part of the rule book I’ve seen quoted a few times today:

“If the player loses the ball while simultaneously touching both feet or any part of his body other than his hands to the ground, or if there is any doubt that the acts were simultaneous, it is not a catch.”

Now, it seems to me that the intent of this particular ‘article’ from the rule book would be in the case of a receiver losing control of a ball  at the moment he strikes the ground, regardless of whatever degree of control he may have exhibited while in the air. For me, once two feet contact the ground, there is no obligation to maintain control of the ball other than through that brief gray area of being somewhat ‘simultaneous’ with contacting the ground.

Hence, we still have a catch. There’s no world in which the ball struck the ground anywhere near simultaneously with the receiver contacting the ground.

Then there’s the other little ‘item’ being cited by the sportswriters as they attempt to sound so much more knowledgeable than everyone else.

“Item 1: Player Going to the Ground. If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball after he touches the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.”

I’ll be the first to admit there is a LOT of room for interpretation here, which is maybe how some will continue the masquerade of agreeing with the call in the face of all logic.

Johnson definitely went “to the ground in the act of catching a pass.” That cannot be disputed.

The word that really screws things up here is ‘after.’

Wha?

After?

What does that mean in this case? He must maintain control ‘after’ he ‘touches the ground,’ but there is no real definition of how long ‘after’ touching the ground the ball goes from being loose to being a catch and in control and possession of the ball.

There is, indisputably, some degree of time ‘after’ Johnson secures the ball with his hands, maintaining control and contacting the ground with two feet AND a knee, but before the ball strikes the ground.

However, is that control maintained through the undefined amount of time called ‘after?’ I mean, technically, a full minute later would be ‘after.’ Exactly what is the qualifying principle allowing the receiver to assume he has completed a catch and can just get on with his day?

If this makes your head hurt, I would apologize, but training as a sports official makes you read and re-read rules with exactly this sort of thought process.

Ultimately, I think the wave of call for the rule to be changed is a little overdone. The rules aren’t really the problem. It’s the wording of an ‘article’ under a rule that needs a little clarification. Don’t be surprised if the NFL somewhat quietly makes this change to the wording to make sure that what we all see and agree to be is not overly adjudicated due to the influence of a lot of unnecessary verbiage.

Where the goal would be for the rule book to make clear that the correct call in this and any other case would match exactly what the eyes of all other observers tell them the result of the action is, the NFL has failed.

Unfortunately, even if the entire NFL officiating community comes out tomorrow and agrees the ruling was faulty, the only relevant result will remain unchanged: the Lions take the loss.

Bright side? Higher draft pick than we’d otherwise be seeing come spring…that’s all I got.

Q1 10:00 – Jahvid Best wastes no time making my point, breaking for a long touchdown run to grab an early 7-0 lead. Nothing interesting from an officiating standpoint.

7:44 – Cal quarterback Kevin Riley shows nice touch on a long toss to Veran Tucker for about 60 yards, putting Cal inside the five. Ugly start for the Gophers. Bears must have had some coffee and Wheaties this morning.

Touchdown Best! It’s 14-0.

7:03 – Looks like the white hat got one of the Gopher lineman for a chop block. It’s hard to see from the live action even when I slow it down. Once those lines collide, the sideline is about the worst place from which to see the action. That wouldn’t prevent the average coach from complaining about what  he thinks he sees, however.

Q2 15:00 – Gopher QB Adam Weber connects with Eric Decker, who makes a great grab near the goal line pylon. It was an impressive effort to keep hold of the ball because he got hammered by the defender. It looks on replay that the ball maybe was a little shy of the goal line before he went out of bounds, but the ruling on the field was a touchdown.

Decker is hurting and bleeding. Looked like a clean and legal, if a bit vicious, shot.

The touchdown will stand. It was close, but the guy with the best angle, the field judge, saw a touchdown. Gotta go with that.

2:30 – Gopher WR Troy Stoudemire gives a shove to defender Sean Cattouse after some taunting from Cattouse. The officials got both offenses. There have been few flags in this game and little to question in the way the game has been officiated, which is always a good thing.

1:20 – Cal’s Isi Sofele managed to both interfere with the opportunity for Bryant Allen to catch the punt AND commit a personal foul by launching himself into Allen’s head leading with his helmet. Too bad you can’t double dip and hit him with both penalties. Allen gets up fairly quickly, but looks like a newborn doe trying to straighten his legs. It was an awful hit and had potential to cause serious damage.

1:11 – Offsetting penalties. Minnesota commits a hold; Cal commits some defensive pass interference. Both calls were solid. Not much to say about either of them beyond that.

0:40 – Apparently, the kid who got leveled earlier, Decker, catches another pass for a touchdown and sets a new record for receivers at Minnesota to make it a 21-14 California lead. Gotta think Decker is pretty much a tough customer having returned to play and contribute after his earlier incident.

Q3 10:32 – Gopher Kayo Carpenter fumbled the ball on his way to the ground. Three officials had a brief, casual conference to discuss it before ruling. I always think it looks good when the officials quickly check with one another on such plays. Even though they are having an official review of the play, it’s hard to think three guys saw it and got it wrong. Replay, from what I see, confirms this crew is continuing to have a great game. Too bad I can’t find their names anywhere yet!

8:15 – Allen is back in the game for the Gophers, making a very clear fair catch signal on a long punt. I can’t believe he’s playing. He really looked like he was knocked silly for a minute.

0:35 – Okay, I officially dig this Decker kid from Minnesota. On a bit of a trick play, he threw a touchdown pass. Great day for the guy. Backup QB MarQuies Gray was the recipient to tie the game at 21.

After a quick start, I thought Minnesota was doomed to a long beat-down, but Cal has looked a little sluggish and has made some pretty significant mistakes. They clearly are the superior team, athletically, but they are getting a fight out of the Gophers, which is fun to watch.

0:17 – Cal’s Mike Tepper got flagged for a hold out toward the sideline. I don’t love the call. It looked like he just shoved his man to the ground. At one point, he made initial contact with the guys shoulder and quickly adjusted to move his hand inside the frame of the defender, which appears to have allowed him the leverage to pancake the guy. It was maybe ten feet away from the official and I certainly could have been screened from what he saw, but it looked like a clean block from what I could see. Seems a minor concern at this point in the game, considering how clearly excellent the officiating has been.

Q4 12:43 – Cattouse is back on stage, drawing a flag for DPI. Ironically, as Cattouse holds his head in shame, which indicates to me he knows what he did and regrets getting caught, the men in the booth have a disagreement over the call. Dave Pasch doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, claiming “he didn’t touch him (‘him’ being Decker).” Griese came around eventually, thanks to Chris Spielman pointing out that Cattouse’s left hand tugged slightly on the shoulder pad of Decker as he made the play. Admittedly, this really looks like it should be a no-call, but it’s actually a great call. Getting the shoulders to turn even a little can make it nearly impossible for the receiver to make the catch, as it moves both arms. It can be a savvy move for a cornerback to twist a receiver’s shoulder pads like that, but only if you don’t get caught.

Cattouse got caught.

Great job by the field judge. Shame on ESPN’s Pasch. He’s in the dark. Luckily the ex-players were there to shine light on the truth as the crew continues to have a terrific day.

11:06 – And, no sooner do I say that than does a Minnesota player covering a punt give a firm tug on the helmet of Syd’Quan Thompson who was lying on the ground covering the ball. It looked like he grabbed the chin strap and not the face mask. In high school, that is a penalty. It may not be the same for NCAA, to be honest. Looks like it didn’t feel great though. I prefer the high school rule. Kids head gets twisted whether it’s from grabbing the face mask, a strap, or an ear hole, it should be penalized. It’s too dangerous.

Cal drives and scores to take the 28-21 lead.

4:48 – Great catch by Bears tight end Anthony Miller. Pasch muddies the issue on the replay saying he was “trying to complete the catch.” It is true the receiver has to “complete the catch” in cases where he may be in the air when catching it and loses possession when coming to the ground; such a case would be an incomplete pass. Looked here like Miller caught the ball, took a few steps, then went to the ground after being hit and lost the ball upon contacting the ground. I am confident the ‘official review’ will confirm the covering official had the correct call, putting Cal again deep in Minnesota territory.

…which leads, ultimately, to what looks like the put-the-game-away touchdown for Cal: 35-21

Overall, it was the sort of game you hope to get as an official. You want to be unnoticeable to the average fan. I’d say the average fan watching will have no memories of the crew when remembering the game. Great job, fellas.

The broadcast, interestingly enough, featured a brief discussion of the last Boise State game on national television. Despite recording that game also, I completely missed the post-game fireworks surrounding the punching of Boise’s Byron Hout by Oregon’s LaGarette Blount, which is a shame as it certainly played into my assertion that the pre-game handshake wasn’t going to mean much of anything more than an empty gesture.

This particular mention had to do with how Boise coach Chris Petersen handled Byron Hout in the wake of the situation. Hout actually was the instigator of the incident, having slapped Blount on the shoulder pad and saying something to him in the wake of the lopsided contest. Certainly, it was likely to have been a comment classifiable as ‘poor sportsmanship,’ but certainly not anywhere in the ballpark of Blount’s right cross to the jaw.

I like the quote from Petersen they gave in addressing the fact Hout was not apparently disciplined with a suspension from playing, which was, essentially, that to punish Hout based on the response of the other kid would be unreasonable, which is true. If Blount, turn around and gets in Hout’s face, maybe unleashing some expletives, the cameras probably catch it and cause a little sensation, but I doubt anyone gets suspended, which would have been the preferred outcome of all involved, I’m sure.

I guess this means I have some respect for the coach. Seems like a smart fella.

On to the game.

10:40 – Boise runs to the left side. A pulling lineman (after several repeat viewings, I’ve identified him, actually, as the center Thomas Byrd…so, CAUGHT YA!) makes such an egregious hold on Fresno linebacker Kyle Knox out in the open, near the sideline and right at the point of attack that even I would likely have seen it. Byrd had such a hold on the jersey, in fact, that when running back Jeremy Avery went by them and Knox spun around to pursue, Byrd ended up being pulled off his feet. That’s a classic case of a hold you want to catch. It clearly hindered a defenders opportunity to make a play. I hate to open with such a criticism, but that definitely deserved a flag.

Oddly, when Avery went out of bounds, Fresno linebacker Ben Jacobs gave him a little extra vicious shove toward the ground. The linesman covering the play seems to be looking right at it, but neither flags the play nor even says anything to Jacobs, instead getting distracted by two opposing players who bump into him from behind maybe jawing at one another. He does seem to be telling them to ‘cool it’ in some way or another, but the opportunity really was with the play by Jacobs. I would hope I’d have hit him for a personal foul on that. His intent was not one of good and had I been looking directly at it as it seemed the linesman here was, it would have drawn my flag.

Of course, there are probably more than a few reasons why this guy is working WAC games and I’m not, but we all make mistakes on all levels. I think this was a pair of misses for the linesman. Let’s hope his day improves quickly.

By the way, thanks to an early interception returned for a touchdown, the Broncos already lead 7-0 and are in the ‘red zone’ again.

Fresno’s defense stiffened, however, and yielded only a field goal. Boise 10-0.

5:44 – Boise cornerback Kyle Wilson absolutely keeps reciever Seyi Ajirotutu from getting into his pattern with another pretty obvious hold. He was all over him from the line of scrimmage all the way downfield. Clear hold. No excuse for missing it. The near sideline is struggling early. Get into the game fellas.

3:27 – Boise WR Austin Pettis makes a catch and a move in an attempt to reach the yard-to-gain line, but his knee hits the ground with the ball clearly at the 19-yard line, but extends forward (after he is down, mind you) and comes to a rest with the ball at the 21-yard line, where the line judge marks the spot. I can’t believe it! I know from experience these sorts of plays aren’t always easy to see as you have to see both the knee come down and the location of the ball when it does. The line judge was a good five yards behind the play when Pettis went down. That’s a poor spot.

I wonder whether I’m just cranky because I had my first varsity game as a wing last night and felt very rusty, or maybe because I’ve not had any coffee.

The latter, at least, I can fix. Hold on.

2:50 – Boise WR Titus Young, on the next play, prevents an interception by pulling DB Desia Dunn down by the back of the jersey. Dunn knew there should have been an offensive pass interference call against Young, giving that little flip of the hand meant to mimic the action of an official reaching for his flag and throwing it in the air. TV analyst Rod Gilmore, during the replay, said, “That’s a good no call by the officials,” referring to Young also, apparently, wanting a call on the play. But as he viewed the play, “as a matter of fact, they could have called interference on Young…Titus Young just mugged Dunn out there.”

This time, I have to agree with the call from the booth.

2:09 – Fresno defensive lineman Kenny Borg is clearly caught in the neutral zone at the snap. Simple, obvious call, but coach Pat Hill is pretty irate with the officials. Well, he might be more irate with his team and taking it out on the linesman. Fresno sacked QB Kellen Moore on a third-and-six, but will now face a third-and-one instead of a punting situation thanks to the penalty. He’s letting the official have it, though. I think there are some legitimate gripes with the work so far, but that call was spot on.

Q2 14:50 – Fresno center Joe Bernardi puts an extra and late block on Boise’s Kyle Wilson away from the play and out in the open. Fifteen yards. Can’t argue it. Why did you do it? I don’t get it.

12:19 – Fresno gets their first excitement of the game thanks to an impressive run by Robbie Rouse. The linesman threw a flag for what looked like a horse collar tackle. At live speed at first viewing, my thought was, “Ooh, horse collar. Add fifteen.” Unfortunately for the linesman and for Shea McClellin, who made the tackle, it was a miss. McClellin had a hold of the jersey, which ended up getting stretched out pretty far, but was what brought Rouse to the ground. No hand went inside the shoulder pads of the runner, which means it isn’t a horse collar tackle.

Now, I’m writing this with my understanding of the high school rule, but a quick look-see tells me the NCAA rule similarly is banning the tackles made by grabbing the inside of the shoulder pads and pulling to the ground. Again, Rouse was tackled by his jersey from behind, making him go down in a similar fashion as what you see sometimes with horse collar tackles, but this was not that.

And, as I review it a third and fourth time, the linesman is at the right angle to where he should have seen this correctly.  He appears to be looking right at the play and couldn’t have seen a hand go inside the shoulder pads. I guess I need to find the actual rule to be sure I have it right because this looks like a really bad call.

9:37 – On a long kickoff return, I hate that the covering official, as he sprints toward the end zone to stay with the play, took his eyes off the field to look ahead as he’s running. I don’t know why it’s really bugging me, especially since I’d probably be fifteen yards behind the play by that point, but he’s not looking at the play. If the runner drops the ball, for whatever reason, at the wrong time, the official has no idea what happens.

Then, once the tackle is made, the two officials on that side appear to be marking two separate spots just two yards from one another. Sloppy.

off-topic: Coffee with chicory tastes a little funny to me.

And, a couple of big plays lead to Boise now leading 24-10.

5:09 – One of those big plays was a long scoring run by Fresno running back Ryan Matthews to get the Bulldogs within 14. After a quick three-and-out, Matthews uncorked another long run to get further cut into the lead, making it 24-17. What a quick turn of events and outstanding pair of runs. There is some talent in the valley!

Q3 15:00 – Long kickoff return for an apparent score is wiped out by offsetting fouls, resulting in a re-kick. Boise, who had received the kick, got called for a block in the back. The replay showed to illustrate the foul appeared to be a block in the side and not in the back, but they likely just had the wrong replay. Fresno, later on the play, was called for a face mask. On the second kick, Boise still managed a pretty good return, but not for a score.

They do get a field goal out of it, however, to extend the lead to 27-17.

12:17 – Boise’s Wilson finally gets called for defensive pass interference. He’s pretty aggressive in coverage and was pulling on Ajirotutu’s arm pretty much all the way down the field. Good call. He was bound to get busted eventually. I think Wilson is a pretty savvy player from what I’ve seen. I’m guessing he gets caught on much less than that with which he gets away.

12:10 – Simultaneous catch is somewhat interesting because it doesn’t happen that often, but Gilmore and Joe Tressitore do a good job of explaining it from the booth. I think I’m starting to like these guys.

11:46 – The field judge is in perfect position to make the call on a catch in the end zone near the sideline. Great mechanics and judgment. Seems like they may review the play, but this was a great officiating job by J. Taylor.

This does mean that Fresno has really made a game of it, trailing only 27-24.

10:59 – Another opportunity for the crew to show their skill on (yet another) long play. Jeremy Avery takes off on another long run, but just before getting to the end zone, is caught from behind and loses the ball. Before the ball can roll out of the back of the end zone, teammate Titus Young, having trailed the play all the way down the field, pounces on the ball and recovers the fumble for a touchdown.

Despite the fact this play covered 75 yards, back judge Mike Defee was in the right position to see both the fumble and the recovery, as was the aforementioned J. Taylor, with whom Defee consulted briefly before signaling the score. It was a remarkable turn of events, very capably officiated by the crew. Great, great job here.

8:17 – Linesman Patrick Turner gets Fresno’s Andrew Jackson for holding on a run to the outside. Looked like a good call.

Q4 14:16 – J. Taylor is, again, in perfect position to see a catch near the sideline in the end zone for a touchdown. They’re apparently going to review it, but Taylor will be shown to have been correct yet again. Don’t doubt Taylor.

13:36 – Fresno’s Matthews takes off for another long touchdown. Someone should keep an eye on this kid. He’s good. (TD runs of 69, 60, and 68 yards so far). Fresno trails 41-34.

12:07 – Boise’s George Iloka is going to get flagged for DPI because he went after the ball, but played through the back of the receiver when he did it. Good call in my book.

…and Boise scores again and my DVR runs out of recorded game, so that’s all I get to see of that. 51-34 means maybe Boise’s defense isn’t as good as it looked against Oregon. I’m also going to assume nobody punches anyone after the last two minutes of the game.

We didn’t have ‘sophomore’ football where I went to school. It seems pretty nice for schools to have four football programs. Unfortunately, there are schools in the area which struggle to field enough players for even the varsity squad. My personal experience with the game makes me wish it was more popular among school kids around here. It’s a very unique set of learning experiences you can gain from being part of a football team. That’s really all I have to say about that.

At the sub-varsity level, we work in four-person crews. Also unlike our varsity games is that we are not assigned a position on the field, with the decisions made among the officials when they arrive on site. Since I am starting to be assigned more frequently as an umpire and knowing that people tend to shy away from the umpire position of the four, I was happy to volunteer to be the ‘big man in the middle.’

In the fourth quarter, I got a reminder why many prefer other positions. We’ll get to that in a bit.

Shortly after arriving to the sideline, we were introduced to our clock operator, who appeared to be a player who was not dressing for the game. This would be the first time running the clock at a game. We definitely should have, right then and there, decided to keep the clock on the field or, at the very least, keep that open as an option.

The instructions for running a clock are incredibly simple and should be even more so for anyone somewhat familiar with the game of football. However, it never works out that it’s that simple in execution for those lacking experience in doing it.

The result for us was that, in the first half, the clock oftentimes would start running when the ‘ready for play’ whistle was blown. After some halftime re-instruction from the white hat, the operator did not start the clock on the ready, but also sometimes not at the snap, either. While we did what we could from the field to correct the timing errors as they occurred, for some reason we simply failed to decide to just start keeping time on the field, which was never not an option for us. I guess I didn’t occur. I can say, for me, it really didn’t come to mind.

With one game already under my belt this year and without the nervousness of a Friday night varsity game, I definitely felt that my number of mistakes was much lower tonight than six nights ago.

On a punt, I turned toward the direction of the ball carrier as the last players from the line of scrimmage moved downfield. I saw a very obvious block in the back from some thirty yards away. I didn’t wait to see if the line judge was going to flag the play (which he did) and flung my flag as far in that direction as possible, which was a good ten yards shy of the actual foul. Turns out those flags don’t carry as well as needed.

After the play ended, the white hat thought I and the line judge had two separate fouls, which should tell you how much I failed to get the flag to the spot of the infraction. Normally, the referee will ask you if your flag is “good,” meaning he wants to know if your flag is on the yard line of the foul, which is where it belongs.

When I went to move my flag to the correct yard line, I went parallel to the sidelines and dropped my flag where I wanted it, which was on the same yard line as the line judge’s flag, but fifteen yards away. The right thing to do would be to put the two flags on the same spot, which made sense as soon as it was pointed out to me, which was only a minute or so too late. Oh well.

I had only one other flag on the night, which was for a hold by a tackle on a running play. He had a handful of jersey as the opponent he was blocking attempted to spin away toward the runner. It was a pretty easy call. Plus, my throw of the flag to the spot was PERFECT, as noted by the line judge. Thanks!

Instead of having a bunch of flags tonight, apparently it was meant to be my night to take my first solid shot from a player in my career as an umpire. I had a few plays come near me throughout the night, but this was actually a run which had gone the other way, but somehow came back at me. For the life of me, I couldn’t explain how or why someone came flying into me from behind, but I took a pretty good hit in my lower back by someone wearing a lot more equipment than I was.

It hurt.

We had the normal, “that’s holding” being yelled by various people at various times. I also got a report from one sideline that a coach was complaining about chop blocks, which neither the referee nor myself had seen prior to the complaint, nor afterwards. Could be a ‘definition’ discrepancy between what it is and what the plaintiff thinks it might actually be.

I did have an incident with a defensive player stepping over a player who was still on the ground after being tackled. I quickly got his attention and told him to “not step over a player like that.” He appeared to not even have realized he had done it, so that’s good.

Another teaching opportunity came late in the game. Leading by nine and less than a minute left in the game, the visitors faced a fourth-and-short situation. Before the ball could be snapped, one of the defensive ends feinted toward the offensive line, as if attempting to get someone to jump and, presumably, cause a ‘false start.’

Unfortunately for the player, he encroached on the neutral zone, essentially ending the game by giving the offense a first down without having to run their play. One of the players asked his teammate, “Did you touch anyone?’ I felt it prudent to clear up the misunderstanding.

In high school, I explained, any time a player enters the neutral zone before the ball is snapped, it’s automatically a dead ball and a foul, “which isn’t the case on Sundays. I’m guessing you’re thinking of what you’ve seen watching the Seahawks.”

“Yeah, that and too much playing Madden,” was the response from the player. “Thanks.”

It’s nice to be thanked sometimes.

On the last play of the game, the offensive team was taking a knee to run time, which they had done the prior play. As I had done before the prior play, I yelled to the defense, “If he takes a knee, do not hit him!”

This, apparently, was not clear enough instruction for the nose tackle, who leapt over the center and appeared to try to swat the ball out of the quarterbacks hands as he kneeled. His teammates on the line were a little incredulous, grabbing him quickly and asking, “WHAT are you doing?”

With nobody really taking much of a hit, I didn’t want to punish the kid too severely, but I did also have to inquire, “Why on earth would you do that?”

I don’t really recall what his explanation was, but we both knew it was feeble. I explained to him he could easily get himself ejected from a game for such actions, which would also have him on the bench for the next game. I gathered he understood about as well as your average pre-driving-age kid might understand such things. As I began walking off the field, the kid’s coach started barking at him, “You got to use your head!”

Apparently, nobody was really impressed with his idea. I’m hoping that kills it permanently for future instances.

Two down with a varsity game tomorrow night. Let’s hope I’m feeling as good about my performance tomorrow as I do with tonight’s.

Ohio State has a 20-7 lead starting the second half.

They showed a bit of a ceremony honoring Chris Spielman on his pending induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. As a Lions fan, I have much love and respect for Spielman. He was one of the few greats to play for the Lions in my lifetime.

That being said, he’s apparently also working in the booth for this game along with Bob Griese and Dave Pasch (which seems like a new name to me).

12:29 – Navy’s Kwesi Mitchell is somewhat fortunate to not get flagged for a late hit out of bounds. It was close, but I think Mitchell could see that Dane Sanzenbacher had stepped out. A split second later and he likely would have gotten hit for 15 yards.

Oddly, despite the fact that the covering official ruled Sanzenbacher as having gone out of bounds and, hence, stopped the clock, the clock seems to have been re-started at the ready rather than at the snap. Couldn’t see if the white hat had given the signal to wind it or no, nor do I know if there is a different timing rule in NCAA of which I’m unaware, but that seemed like a bit of a gaffe. May have to reasearch that in case I need to eat those words.

12:11 – Left guard Justin Boren gets an early start, leading to a false start penalty. The clock stops for the enforcement and then starts again. On the following play, Ohio State gets called for a hold. It’s STILL second down!

Hey, what do you know? Learn something new for just a modicum of research. Turns out the NCAA has apparently attempted to shorten games a bit by restarting the clock on the snap after play goes out of bounds. Hence, I was absolutely under-informed regarding the clock there. I wonder whether that change will trickle down to the high school level.

Things are moving along very quietly in the third quarter for the officials. Navy, however, punches in a touchdown late in the third quarter to close to 20-14. This will definitely be fodder for Buckeye detractors.

Q4 13:19 – After a Navy fumble is recovered by Ohio State, Pasch (I think it’s Pasch) says he was surprised the Navy coach Kenn Niumatalolo didn’t ‘challenge’ the ruling of a fumble. No matter how much I slowed the replay down, I can’t figure even what would be worth challenging. Maybe, but only maybe, you could argue that the runner’s forward progress had been stopped and, hence, the play should have been dead, but that’s  more a reach on my part trying to figure out what Pasch is thinking, as he mentions it a few more times as Ohio State moves quickly to the end zone for a score to make it 29-14, even implying after the score that the ‘ruling’ of a fumble was instrumental in the way the game has developed. I’d ask him if I could. He seems to have a curious opinion of the play. It was clearly a fumble to nearly everyone else, including the Navy sideline.

8:40 – OSU running back Brandon Saine appeared to have his face mask grabbed while running through traffic, actually forcing him to spin in a circle.

Sandwiched between discussion of lunch boxes and Ohio State’s ability to have fresh legs in the backfield by using either of two backs, Pasch asks, “Should have been a face mask here, guys, by Chase Burge?” Pasch didn’t wait for someone else to answer, “Yep. Any part of the helmet, including the chin strap, is a fifteen yard face mask penalty.”

Spielman and Griese seem disinterested. It’s a marked difference from the team in Raleigh on Thursday.

6:15 – Navy takes advantage of OSU’s failure to convert a fourth-and-two deep in Navy territory by going deep on the next play for an 85-yard touchdown pass, mostly on the legs of receiver Marcus Curry. There’s nothing about the officiating here. It was simply a remarkable turn of events. Why OSU coach Jim Tressel declined to attempt a field goal will have to remain a mystery as Navy draws to 29-21, leaving them to perhaps wonder where they might be without all their fumbles in the second half.

3:52 – Holy cats! Again, not as an official, but a football fan. Navy just intercepted an overthrown pass. They have a chance to tie the game with the ball at the OSU 33.

2:23 – Navy QB Ricky Dobbs looks to be happy to fall forward for a first down conversion on third-and-one, but finds nobody there to put him on the ground, so he scrambles for a touchdown. What a crazy turn of events. The crowd in Columbus is stunned. The looks on faces as the camera pans the crows show utter disbelief.

Happily, the game has been very smooth from an officiating stand-point and the broadcast team hasn’t felt the need to disparage the crew. It’s a good experience.

Alas, it was not meant to be. On the try, Dobbs’ pass is intercepted and returned for two points for Ohio State, leaving Griese to express disdain for the play call. Spielman agrees they should have run the ball.

2:23 (continued) – Navy attempts an onside kick, which does go the required ten yards and is grounded, but bounces over the heads of everyone and goes out of bounds untouched. The covering official marked the spot immediately and killed the clock. You can see another official come up to him and ask something, likely along the lines of “Did it go out of bounds untouched,” which received a nod in the affirmative, whereupon you had two officials reach for and throw their flags, except the covering official missed his flag as he tried to grab it and threw an empty handful of air. If that’s the worst thing to happen in the entire half, everyone should be happy with their game today.

Spielman thinks the “same official threw two” flags. Pasch offers that Navy may have been offside. I think they are both wrong.

And, the white hat clarifies that they are and the sun sets on Navy’s upset bid.

Q1 12:18 – A Wolfpack linebacker hammers the Gamecock running back in the backfield, jarring the bar loose. Immediately, I see the referee’s bean bag fly into the frame and land exactly at the spot of the end of the run/fumble. That’s pretty good considering he was likely several yards away. Might have to practice my bean bag skills. In fact, I should now realize that despite all the fumbles last night, I didn’t throw mine once. Oops. Gotta work on that.

7:51 – On third-and-one, NC State attempts to get the first down with a run up the middle out of the shotgun. The running back, Jamelle Eugene, was met by a few defenders very close to the (unofficial) yellow line meant to show the home viewer where the ‘line to gain’ is on the field. It’s a great enhancement for football viewing, miles above the glowing puck once used by Fox to the chagrin of hockey fans everywhere. The line, however, is not official. I’m not sure how the determine where to virtually paint it on the field, but it seems to usually be a pretty good indicator, generally. Not sure I’d want to lean on it too heavily for the closer plays. Having slowed the play down for a few repeated viewings, it seems like Eugene was hit very close to where the line was. From where he was holding the ball, I don’t have a problem with thinking the tip of the ball might have just gotten to the front edge of that (again, unofficial) line. And we all already know that the forward progress spot is the important thing here, right?

“It appears he was short of the first down…they gave a great spot though, and it’s going to be a first down,” was the analysis given by one of the commentators (I have no names at this time). His partner followed with, “Absolutely. That was a very favorable spot right there.” To their credit, they dropped it in favor of discussing the game.

Now, I will say that it was definitely close from what you could see on the broadcast, but the angle from which you are seeing it at home does not give a good picture of where the forward progress was stopped. The official who spotted the ball was looking at the play directly and would have made that call with a 90-degree angle to the ball. The line judge would have been looking right through the ball to the line-to-gain indicator and would have been able to say whether the spot was eclipsing the needed spot for a new series, or whether a measurement would have been required. You don’t have to know too much about such things to know that having the right (okay, correct) angle is going to make a huge difference in the call. From a bad angle on television, sure, you might have though it was short or, at least, called for a measure. From the field, I have no idea, but, surprise, would trust the officials.

5:38 – Wolfpack WR Owen Spencer is overthrown slightly, whereupon he looked around in that familiar way players look around for a flag on the ground, or, more likely, is showing he thinks a flag should have been thrown.  The defensive back, Akeem Auguste, did a nice job in press coverage, but, on replay, seemed to have grabbed Spencer’s arm, potentially impeding his progress. He might have gotten away with one on that. The funny bit for me is that the defender turned around to move back to his teammates shaking his finger in a Dikembe Mutombo fashion, as if to indicate it were foolish to attempt to throw his direction. It’s funny because he maybe had to cheat a little bit to win that particular battle. Ultimately, though, he did win it. So, kudos to Akeem.

4:52 – A blocked punt reminds me I need to do some rules study. I missed a question on my test Tuesday involving a punt that ended up behind the line of scrimmage. Stupid!

4:40 – On the very next play, South Carolina does what I like to do on the video games after a turnover or blocked kick and goes for a big play. QB Stephen Garcia thows it 65 yards into the end zone and the arms of teammate Tori Gurley. The covering official seemed to be right on top of the play and looking directly at Gurley and the defensive back covering him (C.J. Wilson) who seemed to be in great position until there was some contact at the five yard line and, suddenly, some separation. Gurley had a guilty look about him immediately, which was seemingly confirmed by back judge Michael Watson who appeared to have flagged him for offensive pass interference. No score. Great teamwork by the officials to get the right call.

And, WOW, is that umpire one big fella.

I shall interject here that I have decided I shall make an effort to use the official’s names when and where I can. Hopefully, this will clearly be more out of respect than anything and not to attach a name to any criticism or error.

Q2 8:53 (after a ESPN replay fast forward skips a chunk of action) – Garcia runs the ball and is met by several Wolfpack defenders. The ball comes loose, but umpire Ronnie Jones immediately signals Garcia was down before the ball came loose. I had to slo-mo the slow-mo replay to see it, but, sure enough, Ronnie had it right. These guys are having a very good game so far, in my opinion. The tempo is good, and everyone looks sharp.

Q2 – 6:24 – After a play, linesman Gary Jayroe catches Leroy Burgess doing something his coaches will not be happy he did, costing the Wolfpack an extra 10 yards (half the distance to the goal) after South Carolina had just converted on a third-and-five. Whatever Burgess did happened off screen, but the example of the official keeping his eyes open for activity occurring in the dead ball period between downs is solid.

By the way, it’s 7-0 Gamecocks right now, in case you were, for some reason, waiting for a score. Also, ESPN has moved to the second half.

Q3 7:17 – Garcia rolled out of the pocket away from pressure and threw the ball out of the corner of the end zone. The NC State fans and coaches clearly wanted a call of intentional grounding. I wouldn’t argue that Garcia wasn’t just getting rid of the ball, but grounding would have been tough to call since he was outside the right tackle, if only just barely, and had a receiver running toward the edge of the end zone where the ball landed. Can’t blame them for wanting it, but no way was that, by rule, intentional grounding.

ESPN has skipped a lot of gameplay during which presumably nothing as interesting as poker, or whatever they show in the middle of the night, occurred. I really don’t get why they don’t just rebroadcast the entire game. Granted, there is plenty of opportunity for compressing a football game on replay, but just clipping out huge chunks of the game just because nobody scores isn’t really my preference. And, again, it’s the middle of the night. What else are you showing?

Q4 4:18 – On a punt return, the Wolfpack runner is brought down by a defender who appears to have reached out and grabbed either the face mask or the side of the helmet, dropping him to the ground practically on his face. It was a pretty ugly tackle right in front of the NC State bench. Head coach Tom O’Brien is understandably hot under the collar over the lack of a penalty flag.

Ooh, but now I’m getting a little irritated with the loud-mouths in the booth.

“Boy, from here, that looked like a face mask.”

My typical response to this sort of comment is, “well, that’s why we don’t officiate from there,” except the replay does seem to indicate this was a miss for the crew.

“He’s got him by the underneath the helmet. That is a face mask. That’s a fifteen yard foul. How do you miss that? If you’re an official out there and you’re in the game and you see a body violently turn like that, there’s no other way it can happen. The ball should be on South Carolina’s 35-yard line right now.”

Okay, I have established that the replay shows this to have been something that would call for a flag. However, how you can ‘miss that’ can be answered a number of ways. First, though, I will say the covering officials will be the first to regret having missed the call once they see the replays because the safety of the players is a primary concern for any official (or so I believe).

Now, this play was a long return of a punt. Such plays have the officials moving pretty well, along with the fact that all 22 players are somewhat scattered all over the field in these situations. Simply put, the officials covering the ball carrier may simply have gottten screened from seeing that part of the play. I can see on the replay that the angle at which the covering official was looking may have put the offending and and offended helmet out of his direct line of sight. I shan’t go too much more into that because I won’t want to seem to be making excuses for the crew. Such a flagrant foul should have been seen, but wasn’t. Nobody is going to like that.

Again, the irresponsibility of the broadcasters is appalling. The know-it-all/second guessing of the officials at work tends to lead to bad behavior from fans and players. There is NO WAY you would want officials to make calls on things they don’t see. If that official didn’t flag the play, it’s surely because he didn’t see it. To extrapolate what he may have seen would be poor officiating and certainly not what anyone would want from officials in general. One must see the entire play to make such a judgment. It’s unfortunate that this was missed, but that is simply going to happen. We all work hard on constantly improving our knowledge and mechanics to assure such things aren’t missed, but things are always going to slip through.

I would also add that you never hear these broadcasters so emotional over mistakes by players or even coaches, but nobody wants to hear that. Just be aware that everyone makes mistakes, but it’s really only the officials, despite executing on a high level a large share of the time, who get berated so strongly for their errors. It comes with the territory. We know this. If we couldn’t handle it, we’d likely not do it. I personally just wish the complainers would train as officials and try it just for a little bit so they have a better frame of reference for their spastic reactions.

Oh but you just can’t stop with the button pushing.

“And we should note, in this game between teams from two separate conferences, these are Southeastern Conference officials on the field tonight, the conference of South Carolina.”

This is beyond irresponsible. Simply put, the implication here would be that the officials may have decided to pass on making that call out of favor of the team from their conference, or am I missing what the possible point of such an urgent ‘note’ might otherwise have been. I’m astounded that such a comment was made and can’t really say anything more about it. In the lingo of our time, ‘it is what it is.’

unbelievable.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard comments from fans that would indicate they believe I am favoring one team or another. I can also not tell you how ludicrous an idea it would seem to me that I would have a reason to want to favor, say, the Bulldogs over the Thunder. It’s absurd. Could it be that they think I’ve somehow managed to wager on the outcome of a game between two teams of 13-year-old kids? It goes beyond reason, but is born in these sorts of flimsy accusations from television broadcasters.

“Not making any suggestion there, but people want to know…”

Is there any way to interpret what he said as ‘not making any suggestion?’ I don’t see it and call ‘nice attempt at CYA.’

Then they continue, with the camera focused squarely and up close on Jayroe, who I assume now to have been the covering official. I’m not going to transcribe the quotes, but it’s more “How do you miss that?” and implications that, even if Jayroe did not actually see the grab of the face mask, he should have somehow known the face mask grab occurred because of the way the runner went to the ground. I really dislike these guys now, maybe even more than Davie and Jones from the Boise game. Maybe I should find their names so they can go on my list, which doesn’t actually exist, but maybe should.

3:36 – Back to action. Stephon Gilmore reaches out and grabs a Wolfpack receiver as he runs by, earning a pass interference call.

The pause in action gives opportunity for the booth personnel to pat one another on the backs while the camera shows that the umpire has blood running down the side of his face.

“You’ve done an awesome job…” blah blah blah.

Don’t tell The Missus about the bloody umpire. She already worries too much about me officiating.

3:28 – Trailing 7-3 late in the game, Jay Smith drops what would have been a catch for a go-ahead score in the end zone.

“That ball has to be caught.”

“Okay, but I’m going to defend Smith for a moment. Look at those arms and hands flying through there. I know you gotta be focused. You gotta catch the ball, I understand.”

Does this sorta illustrate an earlier point? I feel it does. All sorts of compassion and defense of a mistake where there was none just a few minutes prior for the man in the stripes. Granted, from my aspect, the face mask miss is more of a safety concern. The announcers weren’t nearly as concerned about the player as they were about the fifteen yards, so, comparing it to an error costing a team the opportunity to take a late lead…I’m just sayin’.

I’ve taken the time to find information about the broadcasting team. I’m seeing the credited team is Sean McDonough, Craig James, Jesse Palmer and Erin Andrews. Andrews is on the sidelines and, hence, is exempt from my disfavor, since she didn’t participate in the nonsense. Admittedly, the whole game sounded, to me, to be covered by just two people. I’ve no idea which was which, so I’m just putting the names here and figuring I can refer to them later if I have better information.

The game ended 7-3 with South Carolina winning. The game had a lot less scoring than the Oregon/Boise State game did, but wasn’t nearly as sloppy. I think this crew, despite the big miss on that face mask and the resulting venom from the broadcast team, had a better game than did the guys in Boise.

I was assigned as the umpire on the crew, which is the guy who is always seen crouching  just behind the linebackers and has long since given up on worrying about getting run over by the athletes. Naturally, it’s larger guys who are asked to work that position. I’m a pretty big fella, so I figure to take my first assignment as a sign I’d best focus on learning all there is to know about being ‘the big man in the middle.’

Opening night of the 2009 season definitely provided some learning opportunities.

More than a few times I have heard the umpire referred to (lovingnly?) as ‘ball bitch.’ This would seem to refer to the fact that a large bulk of the job involves getting the football from either the ball boy running a new ball onto the field or from the preceding play and placing it down for the next snap using information from the wing officials (on the sidelines). While it’s not remarkably difficult a set of tasks, I definitely suffered from a bit of greenness in the position. I found myself moving to the succeeding spot, but waiting for the ball to be delivered to me far too often and not even being all too aware of whether there was a new ball being brought into play. The visiting team, who was from Canada, actually failed to use their own football for most of the first half, instead using the ball already in play. Not sure if that was a function of it being simple snags of early-season operations or the fact that, having traveled from Canada, they might not have even brought someone who could serve in the capacity of ‘ball boy.’  As it was, there were only two coaches on the sideline and otherwise just players from what I could tell. In fact, when I shouted toward the visitors’ sideline for them to bring their ball with them, it was the head coach who grabbed the ball and, with his offense already mostly on the field, threw a terrific spiral to me on the far hash…which I managed to drop with both hands.

Yep. Still got it.

Eventually, I realized it was prudent for me to go beyond the hash marks to fetch the ball and return it back to the middle of the field. The referee would then move to the spot and take the ball from me and spot it, making for a little better tempo. I feel pretty confident that will come a bit easier in the future. I think it was just a matter of it being ten months since my last game and maybe just needing someone to say, “hey, it’s okay to go out there.” Not doing things out of fear of doing the wrong thing just kept me from doing the right thing. Go figure.

One of the other primary functions of the umpire is checking for illegal equipment. This was made a little extra interesting for me by the visitors from Canada as they had the ability to purchase new equipment during their visit to Seattle. There were a whole lot of new gloves on the hands of the players. The team had apparently also made a trip to Qwest Field the night before to see the Seattle Seahawks host the Oakland Raiders in a pre-season game, as there were several players with the bright green sweatbands adorning biceps and elbows. Unfortunately for them, the rules allow sweatbands to be worn only on the wrist, so they all ended up being removed. Luckily, all the gloves were okay.

Unfortunately, I allowed the concern over all the gloves and sweatbands detract me from what I had meant to do which was to check the game balls and instruct the ball boys, all the more to contribute to the earlier issues I mentioned.

After the initial touchdown of the game by the home team, they lined up in the ‘swinging gate’ formation for the try. They got hit for illegal formation, moving them back five yards to the eight yard line. They lined up again, but then the defense was hit with an offsides flag. I nearly moved back to the initial spot for tries, which is the three yard line, but, at the last second, stopped at the four, realizing we needed to go only half the distance to the goal line. As the teams were getting ready to finally play the down, the back judge stepped toward me and told me we needed to be at the three. I responded quickly, “No, half the distance,” which received a smile and nod. For whatever reason, the line judge came running in blowing his whistle and also answering “half the distance.” I guess there is no harm in the communication, but we had already resolved the issue and the back judge was moving back to his position under one of the uprights. If you think something is wrong, it’s always appropriate to stop a play from going in order to correct the problem, but stopping play to explain to someone why we have it right…I might just say to let it go and discuss it after the try if you think a fellow official still has a question. I don’t even think that’s just me.

Unfortunately, the next time we had a five-yard penalty inside the ten yard line against the defense, we marched off five yards. Clearly, the rust wasn’t as easy to knock out of the brain pan as I’d have liked.

I threw a total of two flags on the night, both illegal blocks to the back, both negating long gains by the home team. Both fouls were within steps of the runner, so I felt good about them.

Unfortunately, we had far too many flags for procedural fouls in the game, particularly in the first half. Again, since it was the first game of the season, I’m sure it’s something the teams will ultimately iron out in practice. Even more unfortunate, however, was that we ended up eating three such flags after discussion between the wing officials. Again, with it being the first game of the year, communication might not have been as smooth as I would expect it will be after everyone has more reps, but officials need to look sharp from the opening kickoff of the first game of the season to the final snap of the championship game. It’s a different standard, but we all know and embrace that.

None of this compares to the misfortune visited upon several of the athletes who had to be helped from the field throughout the game.

Early in the game, one of the home team’s players was a little slow to get up. When he tried to push up off the ground, I could see his arms trembling mightily, meaning, to me, he was in a fair amount of pain. I just said, “stay down if you’re hurt,” and signaled for the trainers to come to the field. After working with the player for a few minutes, the male trainer got some of the player’s teammates to help carry him off the field. It looked like he might have had a lower leg injury on which the trainers didn’t want him to put any pressure whatsoever. The female trainer made a comment about them being kept busy, which I found surprising as it was the first time they had come onto the field. It turned out that one of the visiting team’s players had made it off the field under his own power, but had severely dislocated his wrist and had to be taken by aide car for treatment.

The most serious looking situation, however, came when a player stayed down for over 30 minutes as the trainers and, eventually, some paramedics, kept his head and neck stabilized while waiting for another ambulance to arrive, since the first one had taken the player with the wrist injury. The player seemed he was always able to move his hands and legs. I’m not sure if he potentially had a mild concussion or neck injury, but no chances were being taken. The player was reportedly in good spirits and was actually surprised he was going to be taken away, so it likely looked a lot worse in the stands without such reports to be given the slight sense of relief. Nobody really wants to see these athletes get hurt, which should go without saying.

But, as the player was being loaded onto a back board and it seemed imminent he would depart the field and the game would shortly continue, a small group of fans in the stands started singing (you know the song), “Na na na na. Hey hey hey. Goodbye.” It was, frankly, a little shocking. It seemed that someone in the stands put a quick end to it, as it didn’t last long, for which I was thankful. After a minute of consideration, I wondered whether the (presumably) young ladies realized the context of how that song is usually sung at sporting events. I think we can all agree it’s not means in a friendly “Aloha” way.

As the teams finished warming up and returned to the field of play, one of the teammates of the injured player said, “They don’t like us.”

“Who doesn’t like you,” I asked.

“Them,” came the not-entirely-useful clarification.

“The other team,” I probed.

“No,” explained the young Canadian, “those guys are respectful. The fans don’t like us.”

Of course he was likely referring to the singing, so I offered that it were possible those singing didn’t really know what they were doing and maybe didn’t mean any harm.

We continued the game using a running clock after an agreement between the two coaches. The game was pretty much out of hand and, with such a long delay, the running clock was preferable to simply discontinuing the remainder of the match. Of course, the players were likely wanting to play more, but you would assume, especially with how much effort and planning such a trip must involve for the Canadian team, they would want to get as much out of the experience as possible.

On the first play after the delay, the home team connected on a long pass down the sideline for a touchdown, further extending the home team’s lead to a whole lot to absolutely nothing.

The home team did put in some reserves for the fourth quarter, which may have attributed to the visitors piecing together a short touchdown drive after recovering a fumble, assuring they did not make the long drive north completely empty-handed. The only real poor sportsmanship exhibited all night came after the touchdown. There was a brief scuffle between a few players after the failed point-after attempt. The nearest officials were quick to intervene, so it wasn’t much of an issue. It was just unfortunate after the game had gone so far with the players all helping one another up off the ground and  being as respectful of each other as you could hope in such a physical contest as the game of football. I think we had one instance of  roughing the passer as the only real issue all game long.

All in all, it wasn’t a horrible first game, but I definitely left the field knowing I have a lot of work ahead as I strive to become an umpire with whom the best referees in the association want to work. I’m fairly confident I’ll get there with the guidance of my fellow officials who are generally pretty good with useful feedback. But, with no games today, all I can do is observe some NCAA football as  an important part of study and preparation.

That’s how I’ll sell it to myself and/or The Missus, anyhow.