Football

Coordination, Communication Key to Measurements

One of the oldest sports clichés is that football is “a game of inches.” When a measurement is involved, it might be a fraction...

Rare Rulings Well Done

No one has ever attempted to rank fouls in the order of the difficulty in calling them. However, it’s clear there is a pecking...

3 “When In Doubt” Judgment Guidelines

According to Webster, judgment is the ability to make a decision. An official’s judgment calls will be questioned more often than his or her...

A Little Officiating Magic

The Magician’s Oath is to never reveal the secrets of magic to non-magicians. Nonetheless, there are various “tricks” officials can use to call a game properly. Magic can...

Literally Lateral

When San Antonio Trinity University used 15 backward passes to score the winning touchdown on the last play of an October 2008 game against...

5 Bad Habits of Football Officials

By Jon Bible My eyebrows raised a bit when it was suggested I write a column on bad habits because it implied I had messed...

Deep Official A Key Crew Member

Back judges are often undervalued in a crew of five. Perhaps that stems from the many prep teams that run the ball much more often than pass...

No Chain Of Fools

In the vast majority of games, the officiating crew is handed a chain crew not of their selection. In fact, at some schools no...

Three Fouls Not to Miss

In most seasons, false starts are the most frequently occurring fouls and arguably the foul that requires the second least amount of judgment (calling...