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...
7 Things You Must Know About Game Contracts
By Alan Goldberger
Game contracts are a part of officiating. Every officiating assignment — at every level — represents a contract or part of a...
Weather Woes
An important concept in officiating is learning to control the things that you can control. We can control the amount of time that we...
Essentials of Game Security
John Locke once wrote, “All mankind … being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
Assigners Can Fire You
The officiating world has no objective meter, like win-loss record, to help determine who keeps their job and who gets fired. It often takes an assigner making judgment calls...
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...
How to Write an Officiating Resumé
Nine times out of 10, a bad resumé will land in the “circular file” before the first half is read. Some bad resumés are just...
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.”...
Your Words Have Ramifications
your words have ramifications. In England, a soccer referee was reportedly forced to quit the Premier League after he allegedly mocked a disabled man...
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...
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...
Good Reports Earn You Respect
It’s a good idea to send misconduct reports — sometimes referred to as incident reports — to proper authorities, even if it’s not required....
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...
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...
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...
Don’t Officiate an “Unofficial” Game
Games can be over before they begin. Some officials fall into the trap of officiating the extra inning after a run rule, or starting...
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...
Is Your Association Balking at Bylaws?
If association leaders don’t follow the association’s bylaws in conducting an election, what can members do? For example, if members must be present at...