IamA American Football Referee... AMA!

Are you blind?

It's actually one of the requirements as an official. You have to be legally blind

I am in no mood for your bullshit.

No one is, that's the best part!

OHSA Football and Hockey official checking in. Definitely blind without my glasses on.

Whoa whoa whoa, you get glasses?????

And old. And fat.

But I'm young, and devilishly handsome :(

Are you kidding me with that last call??!!??

I saw what I saw ¯_(ツ)_/¯

You dropped this \

MY ARM!

I feel as though the, "WHAT ARE YOU, BLIND?", joke is said a lot to refs. Is there anything that someone in the crowd has said to you that actually made you chuckle a little bit?

"SO HOW MUCH IS THE OTHER TEAM PAYING YOU TO FUCK US IN THE ASS?"

That was what I chose for a similar question in this thread. It was screamed at me when the entire stadium was quiet and I really wasnt expecting to hear anything. Made me chuckle

Ref, I have your phone. You have 3 missed calls!

That's a good one!

Not sure what level you referee, but I have a story to share from when I interned with a high school athletic dept.

The game was a serious mismatch, becuase the home school (where I worked) had a JV team that was approximated 130 players & the other school's JV team was effectively freshman & varsity players who didn't play, totaling maybe 40 kids. Our team ran away with the game in the 2nd half, obviously able to rotate & keep both sides of the ball fresh. After the game, my first job was always to get the officials off the field & into the building. During this game, neither side of fans were particularly charged, which was refreshing to see, but one parent did follow us along the fencing asking "how much did you pay them?" and I told them "I paid the referees the same amount I always pay them; $X." Guy looked at me stunned before I elaborated with: "It's state HSAA regulation. The home team always pays the referees for their time... Your team pays referees every home game you play." And with that, he stopped following and we went into the office without any further disruption. The look of confusion on the guy's face has always stuck with me as one of my funnier moments on the job.

Anyway, it's a thankless job, as you know. The administrators appreciate you at least haha.

Haha awesome man! Thanks for the story! That's pretty funny I'd love to tell someone that.

I find the small redneck schools have some of most entertaining crowds. I was white hating a sv game, my H who was wearing white tights under his short black shorts and I hear from the crowd "pull your spanks up and pay attention to the game".

YES! They always got some drunk guy in the stands somewhere. Love those games... Why did he have on white tights? Y'all are allowed to do that?

Not supposed to, but this guy was an odd duck. Not a very good official either, I remember him asking me what the pass interference signal was during the middle of a Friday night game. He'd only been calling for 15 years.

Yeaaaaaaaa... I can think of a few people like that. hahahaha!

Are you Ed Hochuli. If not do you wish you were?

I am not but I wish to be Mr. Hochuli... I'm a straight man but I would marry that man. He just seems like one of those guys that would hold you and take care of you.

Are you my uncle Steve married to my aunt linda? If not do you know my uncle Steve married to my aunt linda?

Oh yea uncle steve! Yea he married that Linda chick right?

No I don't know them

I love you.

I love you too bby

If a wrong call is made, do refs try and look the other way or give a bad call to pay back whichever team was affected?

I actually have a really good example of how to handle these things. Long story short, you never make a bad call to repay for a wrong one..

Our referee, the white hat, called a face mask on the defense, the defense at the time was the team on my sidelines (just so you get the idea). The ball carrier was facing me, his back to our white hat who threw the flag. It wasn't a face mask... however I couldn't get over to him and discuss that with him before he was already calling it and applying the penalty. Coaches went nuts, screaming about how it wasn't a face mask. The coach runs up to me asking if I saw a face mask, I looked him dead in the eye and told him I did.

Thing is, when you are on the field you have got to back up your guys. Maybe you don't agree with it but you never tell a coach, player, or anyone without zebra stripes that you don't agree with it. It's y'all against everyone else and it is not uncommon for an angry person in the stands to follow you to your vehicle.

Now when you meet up in the middle of the field, you chew that other official's ass off. Other than that, if a call is made wrong, you just roll with the punches.

You'd lie and steal a victory away from someone? Much dishonor.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

If it's a huge game changer it's something you push a little harder to fix... It's hard to explain how to handle these things without actually having you experience it

You dropped your arm again.

NOOOOOO

I hate the saints guess which team I support

Well everyone hates the saints so... The saints?

Why do you hate the bills?

I cannot confirm nor deny any feeling towards the Bills

What's the percentage of referees at the collegiate and high school levels making it to the pros? Is it more of working your way up the ladder or just applying to the league for the positions? Also, do you rotate for separate games or is your job more specific, say, for a line judge versus a head ref?

It's all about moving up the ladder. One day I do hope to move up to NCAA, basically, you are still apart of TASO but you are also apart of the, oh for fun lets say, Big 12 group of officials. Which have their own meetings and all of that. Once you make it to the collegiate level there are NFL referee scouts that actually go watch games and make notes of the next group of referees they want to pick up for the NFL. Moving up the ladder takes a lot of knowing the right people and kissing the right ass from what I understand.

As for rotation, typically you have a main position and you'll work that position most of the time, though doing a different position is not uncommon, especially if you are a back judge or Umpire during varsity games. I never once worked as anything other than a Line Judge, however I was assigned to Head Linesman twice and opted both times to switch with the Line Judge because I hate having to work with the chains.

Thanks for the reply. Hope you make it to the NFL someday!

Thanks! You're awesome!

Has anyone ever offered you a bribe?

Jokingly, yes. No one has ever seriously done so.

That is often how actual bribe conversations get started. Way to shut them down early!

Hey I've demanded my bribe before, jokingly of course. I asked the coach which way he wanted to kick for the second half and he asked if he could just have the ball back and how much it would cost for that, I laughed and gave him a number, then he told me which way he wanted to kick. Kicked the ball, the receiving team muffed it and that coach got the ball back... I asked for my 20 bucks hahahaha

How hard is it to post to reddit while being completely blind? Do you have a brail keyboard and monitor. j/k :)

I usually just slam my hands on the keyboard, whatever bullshit pops up is what I post. lol!

Is refereeing in the WWE an obvious next step for a NFL referee, or just one of many options?

I'm sure it's just one of many options. I mean NFL refs are already lawyers or some other white collar job and make a lot of money doing their day job.

How In shape do you need to be? Is there a lot of running for your position?

Just be ok with running. Fully expect that you may be on the 1 yard line and have to sprint and keep up with the running back who just broke free for a 99 yard touchdown... and then be ready to run again during kickoff.

Do you enjoy doing it? If so what's your favorite part about it.

I love it, it's hard to pick one specific part that I love, but when you walk out onto a field Friday night and the stands are packed and the players are getting hyped up and you realize that your purpose that night is to ensure the integrity of the game it's an awesome feeling.

Plus I love the fact that it's a workout, you'll lose some weight working as a ref for sure.

Then why do I see so many fat ones? Dead serious question

Have you ever seen them run? You can do the job and not do the running. My referee of my crew just completed his 35th year as a ref, he is old, hurts, and is ready to retire, so instead of making him run when the tempo demands it myself and the others will pick up where we can to compensate. He still does a damn good job as a white hat, and we work like a well oiled machine.

What substance fills the void of where your soul should be?

Your tears

Hi I have two questions for you.

1) Was there ever a call that you have regretted calling or do you stand by every call you've made?

2) How do they decide who is the head ref and which refs will call each game?

1) Great question... Not so much as a penalty, there are probably a couple that I think man... I probably shouldn't have thrown the flag, but there are way more times I think, damn... I was WAY too nice, I should have thrown that flag. You wouldn't believe how lenient refs are in games.

2) You usually know what position you'll be working and work that position most of the time, but we have a website where we get personally assigned games with a crew and whoever works the assignment of games chooses who is going to work what position in that crew

I'm a football coach, what is the #1 way to get you on my side and go "man i like refing when x team plays"?

Be calm man, we are not one of your players. The coaches I loved the most were the guys that when I threw the flag on them they were standing right behind me going "damn, yup. That's holding." Or even if you don't agree with the call talk with us "hey on that what did you see to make you call that, because I saw this" if you just try to talk with us like adults we will respond. It's when you get on the yelling that we pretend we can't hear you.

I know games get heated, I've been on the sidelines for most of my life and I get it. I've sat there yelling at the ref too, but it does nothing for anyone. It just makes me discredit anything you say later on. I honestly feel that conflict handled well between coaches and refs are a good instrument to teach your kids how to hold their tempers in real life situations. Show you care, just don't over do it.

Also I really enjoyed a friendly coach before and after the game. Who will come up shake my hand and bull shit with me.

Have you ever had a game so bad you questioned your willingness to carry on? I've done some low level officiating in another sport and there are times I know I've blown it badly and I think "what am I doing here?" Ever have one of those days?

Yes. There is a team I hate reffing for because it's just constantly screaming from the coaches at me and it makes me afraid to make a call and I end that game thinking "I never want to do this again". It gets tough you have got to really have some thick skin, keep up with it though because you WILL get better. There are only two types of bad calls, the one you made and the one you are going to make.

NFHS rules have a sideline warning penalty. Start throwing them. First one's free, next one is 5 yards, and after that it's 15 yards. If they're causing problems, throw the flag and they'll shut up.

You don't have to take that shit.

I've never warned a coach. From what I understand we operate on NCAA and it's one warning, one flag for 15, on the second flag the coach is ejected.

I've grown up playing football so I'm use to the yelling but the particular coach that really messed me in the head did it while I was still fairly new to reffing. It still had not clicked in my mind that I don't have to take it anymore. I'm not a player.

How many times have you been accidentally taken out?

Zero. When a play starts moving my way I get out of the way. Once the ball has moved past me I run behind it by just a little to stay out of the way but keep an eye on the ball and the guys near the carrier.

Hi, my question is. Has a player/coach ever been so mad that he tried to hit you or just hurt you?

No, thank God. I'm a giant guy, I played on the O-Line for 12 years up through the NCAA level. I would love for someone to try to hit me, not that I would hit back but I would love to kick someone out of the game and write up a nice little report about that. I do feel my size has helped with physical retaliation, though I've had plenty of coaches in my face screaming at me.

How do you reply so fast?

I'm like a rap god.

I'm a ref god.

1. In your opinion/experience, has the rise of up tempo offenses had any negative effect on referees' ability to make the right call consistently?

2. Do you aspire to "climb the ladder" and eventually ref college and/or pro games?

3. When you're watching football, how much are you critiquing refs' calls vs just watching for entertainments sake?

1) I don't think so, I feel that we understand that the tempo has picked up, and we are prepared to keep up with it, I do feel that it's very possible to miss a few penalties but it's nothing significant

2) YES! My dream is to one day working the NFL level. It would be freaking awesome if I made it even to the NCAA.

3) Ever since I became a ref any time I watch a sport I find myself always looking at the officials. When it's the NFL I'm going "Damn those are some sweet uniforms and gear", when the play is going on I try to watch my usual area and see if I can spot a penalty and debating whether that was a good call to make or not.

Another referee here: in answer to #1: Effectively, we set the tempo. We determine the pace of readying the ball, etc. Theoretically, all 7 of us should be ready to work the next play when we blow the ball ready. The offense may run plays faster than the defense likes, but we set the tempo.

What level do you work at that you got 7 guys? I'm jealous. Most of my games I work with 3...

Southeastern Virginia. We do 7-man for varsity here, 5-man for middle-school and JV, and typically do 4 for all tackle youth. I've heard that this is rare, it's nice!

You guys got it made up there. That is ridiculous. Maybe one day my chapter will get enough members to make this a thing

It also depends on the schools for funding that many officials per game. Even our top schools here (Orange County) won't pay the extra two guys until later in the playoffs.

That doesnt surprise me.. I made about 200 bucks for driving out to this middle school game way out in the boonies and worked 3 games in a row that night and drove back.. Still haven't seen that damn paycheck.

Fellow official here out of East Texas.

Do all the coaches seem to know your mother as well?

All kidding aside, how do you like it so far?

Yea I'm beginning to suspect my mother might be a whore..

I love it, it's great, especially now that I don't play the game anymore I still get to be apart of it, and the fact that I get a paycheck for it is icing on the cake!

Could you get off your knees? Because you're blowing the game.

Let me shake your hand

When you throw a flag & make the call, is it announced over a PA system via wireless headset? If so, have you ever thrown a flag & went to announce a call but completely forget what it was called?

I can just imagine myself throwing the flag & getting ready to make the call & completely blanking....."YES, FLAG THROWN...ERM...#32 DEFENSE...FOR...DOING...SOMETHING...SILLY!"

The white hat (referee) is the guy who does all of that. However I have forgotten the terminology when talking to him. I threw a flag for false start on the offense and in front of everyone I said "off sides on the offense" and the ref looked at me and said "what?" It was embarrassing.

Have you ever been heckled in a creative manner? My dad used to yell "If you had one more eye you'd be a Cyclops," and got a lot of laughs/funny looks.

Haha! That made me laugh out loud! No, no one has been that creative this year :(

What aspect of your job isn't as bad as you thought it would be? What part is worse?

For the most part the yelling. I really don't get chewed out by coaches as often and when I do it really isnt that bad, minus one school in particular but that's another story.

The worst was how much technicality goes into being an official. It's crazy! I thought, "Hey, I played football all my life, I know what I am doing." My first game I had no idea what I was doing.

How many miles do you actually run per night?

That's a really good question... I don't have the answer to that. I don't carry my phone on the field which measures my step but I'm planning on buying something like the "fitbit" so maybe I'll have an answer for you next season?

Hey, I have a fitbit with a black size L band, I don't use it anymore as I upgraded fitness gear & I'm a manager at a hardware store so having something on my arm like a "bracelet" sometimes gets caught in machinery that could ruin my day/life (the key machine is one of them...ahhhh!), if you'd like to try it out, I will donate it to you? Depending on shipping, I might ask for a few dollars, but if it's pretty cheap to ship I don't mind at all, I'm from Seattle, WA. I assume you are in TX, yes? Just PM me & let me know! It's just collecting dust over here!

Really?? I'm going to have to seriously consider this. Thank you for the offer!

How do you sleep at night?

Got asked this a lot... I sleep like a rock.

Do you work for the Pac-12? Because if so fuck you sir. If not then have a nice day.

Haha no I work for TASO. Just Texas high schools and down

Who else is disappointed this isn't Ed Hochuli?

Me :(

How close to the goal line do you have to be for a penalty to be half the distance? Does it vary by penalty yards assessed?

I don't know enforcement very well, but I do believe it varies by penalty. Don't quote me but that's how I've understood it observing our white hat enforcing the penalties.

Were you nervous when you threw your flag for the first time? What was the call? Was there maybe a different "first flag" that you should have thrown but were too nervous to?

Actually yes, I was so worried about making the right call that I was pretty nervous tossing it. I let a lot of things go that I could technically call, a lot of holding calls really don't get called. I've missed a few penalties that I should have thrown because I was too nervous to think about which rule they were breaking.

Thanks for the reply. I can certainly understand that. I've always wanted to ref (or umpire) but I feel I'd get so stinking nervous on borderline calls (that I know should get called). Guess you just gotta say fuck it and throw that flag as high as you can.

Your last sentence sums it up. You gotta be confident and sell that you know what you are doing. You might not but you fake it till you make it because coaches will see that weakness and just ride your ass all night. You should really give it a shot! Once you get past that first game you feel better about it, and then you feel freaking awesome when it's just outside down field and the receiver leaps into the air and catches the ball in end zone but the stands get really quiet waiting to see if you say he didn't get a foot in before stepping out of bounds and you hold up your hands and that freaking crowd goes NUTS. Nothing like it.

Ever had one of those games where you goes from fun and clean to a complete blood bath in a matter of minutes for what seems to be no apparent reason?

Sort of. There are times when rivals are playing and it was going fine and then one team starts to get blown out and it just becomes a bloody mess. The team winning refuses to kill time and just wants to beat the other team by as much as possible.

Maybe I'm a bit late to this thread but it's worth a shot.

I ref youth and high school basketball. In your opinion, what's the hardest sport to officiate? Easiest?

Well I honestly can't tell you, I've never reffed anything but football. You're not late! Questions are still rolling in and I'm having a blast answering them.

How hard is it to become a ref?

Not very hard at all. Find out your state's Association and find your local chapter. Send and e-mail, or got to the meeting and pay your state dues.

Do you have groupies?

I wish :(

Your thoughts on NFL coach's challenging being allowed for every single type of call, or reviews in general?

Also, how does it feel to through the flag?

I tried hockey reffing, but I'm clearly to passive for it since I always doubt myself and don't handle the public pressure well.

I'm ok with coach's challenge... For every play? That's a waste of time, but if you think we made a wrong call and it'll significantly change the tempo of the game challenge it. I like the system though, if they are right we change it, if not it's a time out charged to them. I think it's a great idea.

Throwing the flag is awesome. Kinda has a sense of "fuck yea" to it. Especially after the play is over and the announcer is like, "so and so's run for 25 yards ends at the 50, looks like we have a flag on the field" like, yea, that's me, one of y'all dun goofed up.

It's crazy how aggressive you need to be, personality wise. I understand what you are saying though, I can't imagine the intensity of hockey reffing, props to you for at least giving it a shot.

What chapter do you call out of?

If you're apart of TASO you've probably been asked to cover some of our games due to lack of membership :)

How many years have you been calling? Gone to any clinics yet?

This was my first season, I haven't gone to any clinics yet but I certainly will try to attend all that I can

How frequently do you have to do an ejection?

Never had to do one. It's really not that common. Surprisingly it's the coaches who are always close to being ejected, players usually don't get too stupid on the field.

Canadian football official here, what are your guys crew requirements for different game levels? We would need a 3 man crew for pee wee, 4 man for bantam and high school and 5 man for any playoff games.

Similar. We try to keep 3 the minimum. That's usually middle school and down. 4 man for the 6 man varsity games and jv high school. 5 to 6 for everything else

What is your 6th official? Do you get rid of the BJ and use the two deep flanks?

If you are lucky to have 6 men on the field it would be the Field Judge. I've never seen anyone work with 6, max I've seen for varsity is 5 but I have heard something about 6 officials for playoffs. In fact, our home page only has 3, 4, and 5 man mechanic guide lines.

What is your favorite number?

72, It's the number I had for most of my football career

I was going to ask if you played when you were younger. How long did you play...HS, college?

I don't know why it showed 1, I meant to say 72, haha.

Yea I played for 12 years, from pee wee up through college at the D3 level

Have you ever had a coach say anything you thought was humorous as he was screaming in your face for a bad call?

Yes, after another official made a call for face mask the coach on my sideline was screaming that it wasnt a face mask, he then told the ref that the official on his side line (me) would vouch that it wasnt a face mask, he looks at me and I go "yes it was..." and he just goes off "WELL HOW THE HELL WOULD YOU KNOW?!?! YOU WERE ALL THE WAY DOWN THERE!"

What's your favourite tablet?

Obviously I love the Surface, it's probably the best in it's class and it's the official Tablet of the NFL.

I was at a HS football game and before it started, the Back judge filled up a little puch with dirt. Is this just a weird thing or is it an official part of your job?

Yea, the back judge is tasked with taking a sample of the stadium. It's then sent in and tested to make sure it is up to standards. This is to ensure there is no astrorigging. Which means that the stadium owners are not rigging the stadium to go in favor of one team or another.

Just kidding, it's probably a souvenir thing like collecting sand from a beach.

What part of Texas do you ref in? What size high schools?

I work Mid-West. I see everything from tiny 6 man schools out in the middle of no where to 11 man 5A highschools

What do you think of rugby union? I know it's similar to american football.

Honestly I know very little about rugby. I've seen some clips on youtube about it but I don't know anything about it to make an honest opinion on the subject.

Brady or Manning?

Is this even a question? Manning.

Damn my hearts broken :(

Not my fault you're in love with the wrong man <3

Thoughts on saints vikings game? did the NFL tell you guys to let a few calls go because of hurricane katrina?

Don't be upset because you got out played, bro.

What is the best/most creative insult you have heard from the crowd?

Hmm, thats tough because usually when someone shouts from the stands and I am actually paying enough attention to listen to them it's the same usually stuff. Though I did laugh after I threw a flag for a penalty and it got really quiet and all you hear is "SO HOW MUCH IS THE OTHER TEAM PAYING YOU TO FUCK US IN THE ASS?"

How do you decide when to make a holding call on the OL when it happens EVERY play? Do you look for spots to really screw one team or the other over, or do you just call them randomly when you want to amuse yourself?

If it's on the back side of the play I really wont call it. My argument for holding is

1) Was it on the back side of the call?

and

2) If he had not held the defender did the defender have a reasonable chance at making the tackle?

Those are usually the two things I consider before throwing the flag.

Have you ever made a wrong call and then realized you were wrong but decided to just roll with it ?

There have been a few times when I made a call where I was like "ehhhhhhhhh maybe" but just went with my first instincts. There was a play where the QB threw it in the air and I was trailing behind the receiver, he catches it with his back to me and then falls to the ground. Had players screaming that he didn't have good possession but I went ahead and called it a good catch.

What's the weirdest call you've ever made?

Ummm. I'm not sure how to define weird in this situation. I once had 7th grader do a front flip into the end zone when he scored. That'll always stick with me as weird.

[deleted]

YES! I was working an 8th grade game and this running back was AWESOME! On more than one occasion he was wrapped up by half the defense and he was still able to break free and run it in for a TD. That kid is going places.

Do you have a preferred team you try to stick for, or do you not watch football outside of work?

Really the only team I root for is the Texans. Don't care too much for college except for rooting for my old college team I played for.

If you were officiating at the NFL level, would you have to recuse yourself from Texans games?

I would assume so. I'm a die hard texans fan and I'm not afraid to show it lol

sup with the outfits?

Don't know but our uniforms are changing to the NFL style next season!

I dont know much about AF except from the Madden games.

Can you pass the ball around like someone would do I rugby?

The game isn't as free flowing as rugby, with each down being finite. Of your defence intercepts or picks up a fumble, those Passes by defensive players must be made laterally, or to a player who is BEHIND him. the offensive player can only throw forward when he is behind the spot they just snapped the ball from.

Ah, if they go in front of the snapped ball spot and then run backwards behind it. Can they throw forward again?

No, if they pass the line of scrimmage (where the ball is snapped) no matter if they come back or not they can no longer throw the ball forward.