Big Man in the Middle: Learning to Umpire

Wait, wasn’t I an umpire all summer long for baseball?

I had a feeling all day that I might be given the opportunity to umpire at tonight’s freshman-level game. I knew the crew was going to be the varsity official who had conducted the apprentice training and three apprentices. Although two of us were second-year guys and and the other second-year was quite tall, I know I best fit the bill for being the umpire in that I’m the thickest.

Ever since I’ve gotten into the officiating thing last year, I’ve been told that I’ll be working as an umpire due to my size, so, like I said, I had a feeling and was looking forward to it.

So, when I arrived at the field, I asked the varsity official if he had any thoughts on who was going to do what, he said, “It doesn’t really matter to me, but I put you down as umpire.”

Bang!

I don’t have much experience as an umpire. What I could recall was that it was a lot of fetching footballs and placing them down at the spot as given by the wing officials. I also knew I was meant to watch one side of the offensive line for illegal blocking techniques and to move up to the line of scrimmage when the offense goes to pass, so I can rule on lineman downfield.

One thing about which I was not sure was the communication expectations of the referee. I had learned there were certain things the umpire was meant to be telling the referee between downs, but I hadn’t much of an idea what those things were.

So, I asked.

The things I guess an umpire tells his white hat are: down, distance, ball location, and clock status.

And, I might have, but the referee seemed to be telling me those things on every down, so I was sorta quiet for the most part.

The only two flags thrown in the first half came from me, both for holding. The second holding call came on what would otherwise have been a fairly long pass completion, which was a bit of a bummer, but, on the other hand, the quarterback wouldn’t have been able to get the pass off as cleanly as he did if the lineman hadn’t held his man.

At halftime, I learned that you want to have a good description for the referee of what the foul was. According to the referee, a lot of varsity coaches will want a better explanation of what happened than, “holding on number fifty-five.” That is, maybe something like, “as the defensive player attempted to pursue the quarterback, number fifty-five grasped and pulled him by the jersey.” The one I heard used by the referee later was “he was outside the frame.” He actually had that one a few times on the same player, so, clearly, that team’s coach has some teaching to do this week.

My highlight came later in the game when the defensive team jumped into the neutral zone and I, for whatever reason, started marching off the yardage in the wrong direction.

With any luck, someone will have gotten that one on camera. I definitely felt a little stupid, to be sure.

At the end, I didn’t get a whole lot of feedback, which I hope means I did okay and wasn’t just completely hopeless, though, I have to admit, I always feel like I should be doing more when I work as umpire. It just seems like there should be more to it.

I do know, as I told the referee at halftime, that I have a mental block about getting to the line of scrimmage once the play has developed into a passing play. I even had a play in the first half where I saw an interior lineman running freely downfield on a pass play and didn’t think to think of it as a penalty until about half-a-minute after the play was over.

DOH!

I guess I should go read up a little bit in the manual on umpire responsibilities. I had also attended a training session with a Pac-10 umpire and one of our varisty guys who does a lot of umpiring and took a bunch of notes, but now that I have read them, I’m not sure what I had meant by a lot of my notes (how did I ever finish college?)

First varsity game is on Friday. The intensity goes up a bit under the “Friday Night Lights,” so I’m glad I’ll be back at the more-familiar Head Linesman position.

See you then.

Game 1: Shaking out the cobwebs or whatever you call it

Between the rules book, case book, officials manual, the illustrated rules of football, and the study guide I bought on impulse from the vendor who was dealing football official goods at an association meeting, the amount of things I was trying to review to be ready to step on the field was significant.

None of it really made the sort of impact on the learning process as did the first few series of my first game tonight.

I was the second of the four-man crew to arrive on site. The guy who was already there asked me what position I wanted to work. I told him I’d probably be best off in one of the side positions, but also had some experience at umpire and could do that as well.

“So you don’t want to white hat,” he asks.

Mike went on to say that we had a pretty veteran crew working the game, so it might be a good opportunity to be walked through it if i wanted to give it a go.

I did not.

I have this thing where I think I’ll have read enough before starting something new to walk into my first attempt feeling fairly comfortable. What really happens is that I never reach that point in my preparation and eventually just get thrust into the role and learn on the fly, which is sort of the better way to do it from my experience.

Despite that, I tend to shrink from the opportunity to get my feet wet.

So, I worked as head linesman. It is easily the position at which I have the most experience, so I was thankful to have the opportunity to work my first game this season in the spot that was most likely to allow me to gain a comfort level the quickest.

The first thing I forgot was to introduce myself to the visiting coach as being the official on his sideline. I had to be prompted by the referee, even though I had just mentioned that I was going to do it as we approached the visiting team as they were warming up.

After that little stumble, I was determined to hunt down the chain crew and give them a nice bit of instruction.

The trouble was that I had managed to forget what all I wanted to say.

1) Don’t get hurt. If the players are coming our way, drop your stakes and back out.

2) Please don’t move until I signal for you to do so.

Was there anything else?

I actually did run a quick course on how to work the chains, as my trio of assistants seemed a little unsure as to how much they knew how to do. The guy on the down box, I got the impression, had not worked the chains prior to tonight.

Ultimately, they were pretty well on the ball, so I’m going to take credit for an effective instruction session. I think we had one or two instances of the box showing the wrong down and one time where they had set up the yard markers pointing in the wrong direction, but they were otherwise about as good as you can hope to get at junior varsity games.

I hustled from my session with the crew over to the spot where the home team was preparing to kickoff. I did actually remember my instructions to the kicker, but forgot that I was meant to raise my arm as a signal  to the rest of the crew that I was ready for kickoff.

Man, there’s just so many signals!

Then, the game just got rolling and I found myself settling in. Each play felt less rushed to get through my pre-snap responsibilities than the prior. It felt good to be back on the gridiron on what turned out to be a pretty gorgeous Seattle evening.

The one thing I definitely want to work on for my next game is my vision. That is, making sure I’m not getting too close to what’s happening to see what’s actually happening. On a play that went out of bounds on my side, I found that I did what I KNOW I’m not meant to do, which is being overly concerned about my spot and not just abandoning it in favor of watching the players as the action moved beyond the sideline. I guess it’s just a hard habit to break, but if something happens on the sideline at that point, it’s really the priority.

At halftime, the way it was put to me was to work on my process, which means to worry first about what the players are doing and then get the spot. If need be, I can drop a beanbag at my spot, which i know, but have yet to be able to do.

Otherwise, I have to also admit that much of the play throughout the game moved at a blur for me. I don’t know for a fact that I missed any holds or illegal blocks or anything, but it is certainly a possibility as I felt like the mass of players were just all over the place. I did actually catch an ‘illegal use of hands’ by a defender on a receiver, which means I was actually looking in the right area on the play (it was late in the fourth quarter). I also had one false start and one illegal formation. Probably more formation and procedure calls could have been made, but, hey, it was their first game too. We’re all just getting going.

Armchair football officiating!

The high school football season is finally under way. My participation in it as an official, however, has not yet begun.

Due to the spreading-out of the opening weekend of games, there seemed to be no need for me to officiate football during opening weekend of the high school schedule here in the Puget Sound area, which is just as well as I needed the entire weekend to agonize over whether may alma mater could knock off a top BCS power Saturday afternoon (they couldn’t) and then to adjust my focus to whether the Detroit Lions can avoid embarrassing themselves against a bad Atlanta team.

Plus, due to a lot of personal reasons, it turned out that Friday and Saturday night ended up being the first weekend that neither my wife nor I had any plans or duties to which to attend, which made for a nice relaxing time together.

I’m sure that’s the end of that, however. I expect to stay busy the rest of the season.

While I should be reading my rule book and studying as much as I can before I do hit the field, I really just watched a bunch of football today. While I was able to pay attention as a fan for the most part, it is really, really difficult to not watch the officials and review their calls (thanks to the magic of the DVR).

The benefit is when you see how they position themselves and focus on what they’re meant to be watching. These guys are surrounded by some very fast-moving action, yet they are so smooth and focused on their duties, it’s just amazing. I’m guessing that, should you watch me officiate, I’d be bouncing around entirely too much and moving my head all over the place.

I guess I’m going to have to work on that.

Most impressive was some of the work of the Umpires I saw in some of the games. These guys were completely still and focused on the line, able to see clearly some holds. It was neat to see the line mutating and morphing as the play developed on these replays, but the Umpire was completely still. Then, if you were watching the right match-up, you’d see what appeared to be a legal block suddenly become apparent as a hold due to a guy pivoting or a shoulder turning.

Then the Umpire moved, reaching for his flag.

I think there is benefit to watching these games, though I’d likely have found greater benefit from going to a game at a local field last night. Seeing guys from the association going through our mechanics would have made a nice refresher. Plus, what you don’t get on the TV broadcasts is the ability to really watch the officials move between plays, which is really what I need to be watching, rather than second-guessing the calls of officials infinitely more-experienced and -knowledgeable than I.

And, with that, I think I shall retire to the bedroom with the rule book.

Knocking Off (Some of) the Rust

Really, even getting dressed seemed a bit new and different.

There are a lot of components to the uniform of a football official. Most of it is made of the various tools of the trade, but after ten months off, making sure I had everything for a morning scrimmage was a little more daunting than I’d have imagined.

Ultimately, I got it done.

Basically, much of the apprentice class was gathered at the scrimmage to get some more-practical, non-classroom instruction on mechanics. Guys rotated into different positions and were given opportunity to hear immediate feedback from veteran officials.

Due to personal issues both last year and this, I had never had the opportunity to get mechanics instruction in such a setting, which made my first game last season very interesting, so I was very eager to get on the field and see what I could learn.

Luckily for me, the decision was made to run with a five-man crew. In our association, the only time you get to work five-man is during Varsity games. Hence, there isn’t a lot of opportunity to practice it, and, unless you happen to have the time to go observe some varsity games, you don’t see it until you’re a part of it.

Despite being built more like an Umpire according to pretty much everyone, I was eager to learn the Back Judge position, if only because the opportunity would not come around again any time soon.

So, combine the ten-month rust and my complete unpreparedness to work the position, and I really felt the rush of something new.

It was a blast.

Granted, I’m not sure how exciting it would be compared to other positions for an entire game and once my comfort level had increased, but I really liked the position when there were passing plays.

There is not as much responsibility for the Back Judge as for the other positions, which is likely why it gets absorbed by the others in four-man mechanics, but it’s definitely an interesting vantage point. It took some work to learn where to look.

Counting defensive players was easy enough. I’m well used to that from having most of my games on the wings.

Then, you have your ‘key’ at the snap. Back judge takes the widest receiver on the side of the formation’s strength. That’s simple enough as well. In the case of a balanced formation, you take the widest receiver on the side of the Line Judge.

What I didn’t know last year and had explained to me in a pre-game was that your ‘key’ is just for the primary blocks off the line. I was confused last season on how you would follow your guy as he ran his pattern while also maintaining responsibility for plays in your area.

At the snap, your initial movement is meant to be backwards, which took me several downs to develop as a habit, which I hope to not have forgotten by the time I have the chance to again work in this position.

From there, it seemed like my duty was to maintain a position that gave me the best vantage point on as much play in the defensive secondary as possible and adjudicating as needed. Once the play is over, you move in and clean up. It keeps you moving and active, which is nice. I can see how it would be a challenge with teams who pass a bit. On one particular passing play that began outside the 20-yard line, I found that, in my hustle to not get beat to the goal line, I actually overran the goal line.

It’ll take some getting used to.

The other interesting bit from the scrimmage was watching all the first year’s and remembering what it was like to actually get out on the field and start to work.

I remember not having the confidence to throw the flag or blow the whistle or firmly mark the spot and all sorts of just general nerves. Some of it I remembered because I was experiencing it again, but also because I was observing it when I had rotated to the sidelines. It was just a good reminder of how much I have learned already, but also how much more I don’t quite have down.

False Start

I had all the best intentions when I started this blog.

Honestly, I did.

Then, life struck.

So, rather than attending training meetings in August, I was three time zones away dealing with family issues.

What that means is that my intentions of documenting my training for the upcoming football season as I study and prepare for my second season as an official is a little bit not going to happen.

However, it might still be interesting to follow through with this from the perspective of having missed a chunk of training and working to catch up to where I need to be.

Might…we shall see.

Welcome to the World of Football Officiating

That’s not to say that the ‘world’ of football officiating is all contained within my humble little blogspace, rather, you’re out clicking links about the subject, so I thought it might be nice to say ‘welcome’ as at least a partial assumption you have taken up the avocation, or are at least considering it.

I, like probably any other official with any amount of experience, will be quick to encourage your participation. It truly is a lot of fun, while providing a great way to stay in contact with a beloved game as well as the personal challenge of self-improvement.

July might seem early to some to be talking gridiron, but it really is high time for preparations for the upcoming season. NFL camps are open, as you likely know. What you might not know is that your local football officials have already begun meeting and training for the upcoming season.

Being a second-year apprentice with my association, I am required to attend the apprentice training sessions along with the brand-new officials, as well as those transferring into the group from other organizations. What I hope to do here is to highlight the things I think might have been helpful to know last year, from the perspective of someone who is not so far removed from beginning from scratch in this thing. While the officials who dedicate time and effort to training the apprentices are really great at what they are doing and have more than just a little more experience and knowledge than do I, I do find that sometimes they tend to talk about things in the manner of experienced officials, while using lingo that might be unfamiliar to neophytes.

Hence, my contributions will likely be more entertaining than helpful to experienced officials, but I do hope to be a source of assistance for those guys who sit in a room mostly populated by second-year guys and transfers and don’t want to ask for clarification on something that seems all too obvious to everyone around them.

Now, some red ass is bound to say something along the lines of, “If you don’t have the guts to ask a question in a room full of peers because you’re afraid to sound dumb, then you’re probably not cut out to be an official.”

My admission would have to be that there is an element of truth to such sentiments.  Confidence is one of the single-most important characteristics for an official in any sport. You have to know the rules of the game and you have to know that you know them. You also have to be secure enough in that knowledge that you’re able to rule on things as they happen very quickly (and trust me, they will seem to be moving extremely quickly the first time you get out there).

However, if you don’t want to ask the question, then don’t, but you damned well had better be taking notes on the things you don’t understand and otherwise researching them. Knowledge is king in most things in life, and officiating football is no exception to that. Do not let yourself be left in the dark about anything being discussed in training because, trust me here again, you’re going to find all sorts of things you don’t know once you get on the field, no matter how much you read or otherwise prepare.

But, don’t let that scare you off.

Seriously.

It might sound cliche, but I’d bet that even the most-experienced official in the NFL or NCAA would tell you they learn something new with every game they work and I would tend to believe them if they say it. Now, their revelations won’t be as simple as being reminded of the importance of giving a signal to keep the clock moving on a tackle near the sideline but remaining in bounds, but they are every bit as important to them in growing their knowledge, abilities, and confidence in what they are doing.

I feel like I’ve gotten well off track here.

All I really wanted to say is, if you are even cursorily interested in football officiating, stop reading about it, find your local officials’ organization, inquire about joining, and jump in.

You’ll be glad you did.