Taking Care Of Business
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Covering legal issues, insurance concerns, and best practices related to taxes, reports and paperwork.
Enforce Mercy Rules
The failure to follow a mercy rule is probably not enough by itself to make an official liable for a player injury. However, it...
Safety and Warmups When a Team Arrives Late
As a sports official, you’ve been there. You’ve fought the traffic to show up to a field on a cold, rainy day, in plenty...
Coexist with Photographers
Officials are in the middle of the action, focused on the game but also aware of the sideline surroundings. Similarly, photographers and community access cable television camera operators...
Can Player Ejections Be Overturned by a Court?
All state high school athletic associations impose postgame disciplinary actions on student-athletes and coaches who are ejected from a contest by reason of unsporting...
For the Fourth Time, That’s Enough!
Warnings — Give ‘em “the look,” “the stop sign,” the quiet word, the louder word, it doesn’t matter if you never take care of...
Keep Expenses Simple or Be Sorry
"KISS” is an acronym for the design principle, Keep It Simple, Stupid! When talking about your officiating taxes, it should be "Keep Expenses Simple."
The KISS principle...
When Your Partner Doesn’t Show
Every time you take the floor or field as an official, drive a car, or even try to help someone put their bag in...
Seek Knowledge and Ye Shall Find
You’re a young, aspiring official who is eager to seek knowledge anywhere you can about the rules, mechanics and philosophies applicable in your sport....
Let the Media Handle the Postgame Commentary
When it comes to officials and the media, it might have been legendary major league umpire Bill Klem who said it best. “I don’t...
Tort Liability for Game Officials
Protecting the safety of players is a substantial responsibility of officials. We are charged with enforcing the rules and many of those rules are...
Write Incident Reports Right
It is one of the most distasteful duties any official is required to perform: the post-ejection or incident report that must be filed by...
Accepting Assignments: Dos and Don’ts
Games! We all want as many as we can possibly handle, but when it comes to accepting assignments, you can't just say yes without...
Negotiating Officials’ Pay
A contract is a contract. However, sometimes the parties to a contract want to change the terms. Often leagues will renegotiate officials' pay for games each year with...
Step Up When a Player Goes Down
There’s a scramble for a loose ball. Before the ball is secured, the referee hears a scream. One of the players is lying on the court and...
Rules Test Tips for Takers and Givers
There are those who argue that a rules test is not the most reliable method of determining an official’s rules knowledge. How much stock you place in...
What to Do If You’re Attacked
Assaults against sports officials are drawing unprecedented attention. Many states have passed legislation designed specifically to protect sports officials from being attacked. More and...
Proactively Address Abuse on the Court or Field
The failure to proactively address sexual and other forms of abuse of amateur athletes can result in severe consequences — including criminal prosecution of...
Should You Sign A Post-Injury Waiver?
Consider this situation: There was a serious player injury that occurred during a game you officiated. An ambulance had to transport the player to the hospital for...
Get Yourself an Injury Witness
It happens. A player has an injury in a game you’ve just officiated. You managed the players and the crowd. The trainers handled the...
Don’t Even Let the Fight Start
When an official asks, ”What should I do if a fight breaks out?” I’m forever tempted to answer, “Dude, don’t let it happen again.”...
You’re Your Own Agent
At a referee development camp that I attended the camp director began with a single question: “Who is your agent?”
After a period of silence...
What is an Oral Contract?
The difference between an oral contract and a written contract is obviously the writing. A contract is simply an offer accepted by another party with the parties exchanging something...
What Do You Have to Hide?
Knock, knock. “Hello, Mr. Smith. We’re with the state association. We’re conducting a little check of all our registered officials. You don’t mind if...
Extreme Behavior Demands Ending Games Early
Legal issues for officials take many forms. Some are obvious. Others not so much. It’s easy to see how injuries to players can be precipitated by...
