Football
You’ll Kick Yourself If You Don’t Spot These Fouls
If something funky happens in a football game, it usually occurs during a kick play. Such downs are a smaller percentage of all plays...
What Happens When the Neutral Zone Expands?
The neutral zone is one of the basic tenets of a football game. In practical terms it’s the space between the offensive and defensive...
7 Elements of Your Officiating Anatomy
The human anatomy is an intricate structure consisting of 11 systems and containing more than 37 trillion cells. Officiating requires the use of many...
The ABCs of A-B-A
T he ABCs of A-B-A A rare and challenging play involves a double change of possession, known as an A-B-A play.
In PlayPic A, the...
When an Inch is Just as Good as a Yard
Like many other sports, football is a game of inches. If the ball is an inch short of the line-to-gain stake, it’s not a first down —...
Snap, Lapse, Perhaps?
It’s highly likely no one has ever called a perfect game. Even at the higher levels, where every official is graded in every game,...
Yawner? Blowout? Guess Again
By Jon Bible
Iremember sitting at the breakfast table on the morning of a late-season game between two cellar-dwellers. One official, a garrulous person whose...
Police the Pile
How does the runner usually react when he’s been tackled? The norm in college and pro football is that runners lay patiently after they...
Calm on Broken Plays
Coaches, players and fans are allowed to panic when a play goes awry. Officials, on the other hand, must react to broken plays as if they're routine...
Things No Football Official Has Ever Accomplished
There are a few things that no official has ever accomplished. By fully understanding the following feats cannot be accomplished, officials will gain a better understanding of how to...
