Who said football officiating was anything less than an art form? Picture this: You're on the field, the stadium lights blinding, the crowd roaring, and in that pivotal moment, your judgment can make or break the game. Now imagine being equipped with the ability to read the game's intelligence, the knack to smartly transition between key players, and the power to prevent fouls from happening in the first place. Intrigued yet? Welcome to our latest podcast episode where we cover the top lessons from our 2023 Colorado Football Officials Association Camp in Greeley, Colorado.
Football officiating is not just about watching the game; it's about understanding every move, every formation, and every strategy. We kick off our discussion with the importance of mastering movement on the field, especially the critical goal line mechanics. Ever wondered about the art of focusing on a single player at the initial snap? Or about something as fascinating as 'money lines'? We'll take you through these concepts and the tactics to use them efficiently.
But that's not all; we also dive into the nuances of preventive officiating - looking out for potential fouls and playing a fair game for both sides. What about coach interaction, you ask? We share detailed insights on dealing with the highs and lows of a coach's emotions, the art of responding calmly, and, importantly, standing up against coach abuse. So, join us on this riveting journey and discover the sheer joy and dedication that football officiating encapsulates. It's not just about the game; it's about playing it right. Let's get started!
Who said football officiating was anything less than an art form? Picture this: You're on the field, the stadium lights blinding, the crowd roaring, and in that pivotal moment, your judgment can make or break the game. Now imagine being equipped with the ability to read the game's intelligence, the knack to smartly transition between key players, and the power to prevent fouls from happening in the first place. Intrigued yet? Welcome to our latest podcast episode where we cover the top lessons from our 2023 Colorado Football Officials Association Camp in Greeley, Colorado.
Football officiating is not just about watching the game; it's about understanding every move, every formation, and every strategy. We kick off our discussion with the importance of mastering movement on the field, especially the critical goal line mechanics. Ever wondered about the art of focusing on a single player at the initial snap? Or about something as fascinating as 'money lines'? We'll take you through these concepts and the tactics to use them efficiently.
But that's not all; we also dive into the nuances of preventive officiating - looking out for potential fouls and playing a fair game for both sides. What about coach interaction, you ask? We share detailed insights on dealing with the highs and lows of a coach's emotions, the art of responding calmly, and, importantly, standing up against coach abuse. So, join us on this riveting journey and discover the sheer joy and dedication that football officiating encapsulates. It's not just about the game; it's about playing it right. Let's get started!
Did you know there was a right way and a wrong way for an official to throw a flag? We'll stick around, because Kirk and I are going to talk about all that and more in our lessons from the 2023 camp. Welcome to your first downs, the podcast dedicated to helping new high school football officials. Here are your hosts, joel Poger and Kirk Russell from the Colorado Football Officials Association. Hey everybody, welcome back to week four now of your first downs, and we want to thank everybody for spending 30 minutes of their day with Kirk and I. Kirk and I are fresh out of our Colorado Football Officials Association camp this week, and it was a toasty one, wasn't it, kirk? Oh, man, and the mosquitoes and the mosquitoes. So we've had a lot of rain. Here in Colorado we don't normally have a lot of bugs, but I think we donated a pint of blood one night out on the field and we learned a lot at camp this week. Not only you know, as Kirk and I being clinicians at the camp, we learned something from the students and the people that attend the camp every week, and we're going to cover on this episode a lot of the I guess, the top questions or the top things asked at camp. So let's get into it like we do every week.
Speaker 1:Kirk, let's start talking about football. One of the biggest things that came up was, you know, movement on the field. And I was manning the back judge station. I know, kirk, you were kind of wandering around to the umpires and the wings and the referees and when we first got out there that night everybody was moving around a lot. You know, we were making big swings in the field and everybody was kind of saying I feel like I should be doing something. When the ball snapped, I feel like I got to be moving because the players are moving. Can you talk a little bit about that? And you know, by the last night at camp we had everybody kind of settle down. Everybody was kind of settling into their positions. Can you talk a little bit about movement and moving with a purpose and that kind of thing when it comes to new officials?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Joel, as Joel mentioned, we are just off this clinic and we're a little bit excited, and so if that comes across in this podcast, it's because we just we're on fire right now. We're excited for the football season. We got to see some officials get better, so I just get chills when we get to make a difference with guys that are fairly new and advancing. As always and I think this is probably the case even with me I've been doing it 34 years you tend to get that the happy feet in the first couple games or first couple snaps, I should say, before you end up settling down. And we see that in brand new officials. They just they want to see the ball. They don't pay attention to their, the things that they're both supposed to be focusing on, and their feet just look like happy feet and we kind of joke about that and it was cool to see over the course of the clinic.
Speaker 2:We're talking about how to move, what to look for, and feet are so critical. We've both Joel and I have participated in many clinics and a message from the top level down is still eyes see more and we all think that you look lazy if you're not moving, but in reality, if you move with a purpose and it takes a while to figure out what that purpose is and when you're supposed to be in a certain position. But the especially on the wing, which is a lot of times where officials will start they tend to move at the snap, where there is zero need to move until you do your reads and we'll talk a little bit about reads as this podcast moves on. But if you're brand new to the game, think in terms of being still until it's time to move.
Speaker 1:My piece of advice is a new official. Imagine trying to see something with your eyes bouncing up and down. So if you're moving, your eyes are moving and it makes it that much more difficult to make an accurate judgment on a play. This game is all about angles as an official, and the angle that you're viewing something at is more important than proximity to it. I think one of the counterintuitive things, Kirk, is officials feel like they have to be right on top of the play and wings, especially play coming out of bounds. They want to be right there to mark that blade of grass that the player went out of bounds on Angles are your friend and we talk about that.
Speaker 2:And even distance, you know you think about if you're sitting in the stands, how much more you can see, and there's a point where you're too far away. But angles are critical and mechanics are part of that. Every position has its own mechanics and where you should be, so I absolutely agree with that.
Speaker 1:So I want to spend just a minute talking about sort of a specific mechanic for wings and that's goal line mechanics. Kirk, one of the things that we talked about at camp was getting the wings when they're at the five and going into the goal line to sort of back off and maybe even back up at an angle right as they move towards the goal line, kind of back up even as far back as the limit line on the field Our high school fields here in Colorado the limit line is usually painted yellow. I don't know if that's standard across the country, but there's either dotted line or a solid yellow line back there. Why do we want them to back up and go at an angle away from the pylon for a goal line stand? Kirk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we spent some time at this clinic up in Greeley. We were fortunate to be invited up to a team camp and we spent some time talking about when that ball stepped at the five. You can help yourself by being off the sideline a couple, couple yards even, which gives you a head start to be off of the pylon by the time you move to the goal line. And what's critical about that goal line? And we call it the money line?
Speaker 2:Here in Colorado there's multiple money lines. The goal line is probably the biggest money line. We got to get that one right, and we can't get it right if we're not in line with the goal line. And so we teach that start off the sideline, because the last thing you want to do is end up with a player in your knees. You could either get hurt or you end up getting knocked down. You can't actually see whether that runner crossed the goal line.
Speaker 2:So we preach that start a couple yards off the sideline and then take an angle and when, when players come towards you, don't move away from being in line with that goal line. Actually continue to move towards the, the fence, or the, the, the stands, because you'll still be in line with the goal line. We don't want to move off of the goal line, we want to move away from that pile on but be able to look straight down that goal, because that's gonna. You've got the best, the best opportunity to see whether that ball crossed or got inside the pile on and all the details associated with the goal line.
Speaker 1:So, as long as we're on this topic, I know we got a ton to cover from camp. Like Kirk said, we're super excited about stuff that we went through. But talk a little bit about rotating with the players, kirk. So if you're a wing and most of the time the wings are signaling touchdown, sometimes the back judge, never the umpire, never seen umpire signaling touchdown. But when the players go by the goal line, I think new officials want to sit there and stare at that goal line. They want to look perfect, they want to be the perfect statue of a touchdown, like you see on TV, but yet there's stuff going on behind them or to the left of them. You know, as players cross, talk a little bit about how and why we want them to rotate with the players as that ball crosses the goal line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we talk here in Colorado that you know a touchdown signal looks the same whether your back is to the camera or your faces to the camera. We want to be able to see those players that go into the end zone. You probably have a player that maybe just tiptoes on the sideline, goes into the end zone, followed by a defensive player. They go out of bounds, maybe they're over by the track, and here we are standing there like a statue looking at the field of play and all of a sudden you got the kid that scored the ball. And we all have to understand these are 16 year olds.
Speaker 2:They do some stupid stuff. We should expect the stupid stuff to happen. All of a sudden we've got a kid throwing the football at the defensive player because he scored. Somebody said something and we got no eyes on that track behind us. So we we talk a lot about rotate your body, watch the players. Everybody knows it was a touchdown. You've signal touchdown. You don't have to look like a statue looking towards the field of play. So I really like you bringing that up, joel.
Speaker 1:I think too many times we just lose track of the fact that these players need to be watched as they score touchdown yeah, and I just tell everybody you know, when you watch your your TV on Saturday, watch the college games, when you watch the NFL games on Sunday, pay attention to those officials, and they're going to be doing exactly what Kirk and I are talking about here. So I know a lot of people like to, you know, watch the quarterback, watch the running back, watch the touchdown get scored, pay attention to the officials, and that's how I kind of developed myself along the way. Right, I would watch those games over and over again and look at what the officials were doing, more so than the players, and everything we're talking about is what makes a great official.
Speaker 2:So and as you're talking about watching those, those upper level college and NFL guys watch how they signal touchdown. We talked about how you don't. You don't look excited that a touchdown was scored with your touchdown signal. It should be slow and smooth. I'd say 95% of the touchdowns, everybody knows it's a touchdown. Let's look like we've been there before. Don't don't be animated. Be smooth, be slow. If you think you're going slow, go a little slower look good.
Speaker 1:So, kirk, let's get into the next topic, and you briefly mentioned this a minute ago, but that's reading the play, and you know, when I, as I was coming up, I always heard snap tackle back. Right, that's, that's what I'm looking for on the play, and I know we're starting to teach snap tackle coverage, and the other main part is not to watch the ball. Talk a little bit about officiating the game, not watching the game. And then how are you reading, as an official, what's going on? How do you get that sort of game intelligence?
Speaker 2:yeah, and I think everybody that has officiated football has gone through a transition where we watch football and when you watch it on TV or you watch it live, we want to see where the ball is, and and when you start officiating you realize you don't get to watch the ball. There's the. Your role is to officiate the game and make sure it's fair and find the fouls and know where somebody's trying to cheat to be successful, and so it takes a little while to stop watching the football and, as is Joel said, we've got some pieces and, in particular, we talk a lot of times newer officials, which is what we're focusing on these podcasts. You start on the line of scrimmage and we refer to. You got to read what the play is, is about to happen, and and it starts all the way back to pre snap we all know that third, if we play the game, third and seven is likely to be a pass play. Not that it's going to be absolute, but there's a pretty good chance that they're going to throw it and they might even throw it to their best receiver. Those are all details that we can come up with as an advantage to officiate it better. But, as Joel said, snap tackle, which means we're watching the ball. We're watching to make sure nobody's encroaching or false starting. That's the snap piece of it, and then again I'm in a wing position looking down that line of scrimmage. So we got a clean snap. Now I want to know what kind of play it is, and you can read a lot of times that offensive tackle his foot and if he steps backwards in a pass protection matter or fashion, likely a pass.
Speaker 2:There's some other things that can happen, but if we are aware that that's now a pass and one of my pet peeves when I watch some of these not not just new officials, but even some guys that have been around a while they tend to watch the quarterback and that's not where the foul. That's not our role as a wing official. We want, as soon as we read pass, we want our eyes and coverage, because that's where we're looking for some holding calls. But you know by the time, if I'm watching the quarterback and then I rotate my head to see where the ball is going, the hold or the pass interference might have already occurred.
Speaker 2:So I really push hard our wing officials to, once you read pass, get your eyes and pass coverage in that zone space. We spend a lot of time in our clinics talking about who has what receiver and what a key means. But yeah, that's my message get your eyes off the quarterback, because the referee has the quarterback if he gets sacked. We always talk that's that location of that sack, or that that progress spot. Plus or minus a yard is not significant. Let the referee get that.
Speaker 1:So, kirk, you Mentioned one of the things I was kind of leading up to, and that's talking about keys. I think it's an important concept for new officials. When we say a key, that's who we're watching and the immediate action on at the snap. That does not mean that our eyes are glued through them through the entire play. In other words, if I'm a back judge and my key is the widest receiver on the strong side, I may transition off of him pretty quickly if there's not press coverage on him. Let's just say there's a slot next to him that does have press coverage. I may kind of watch both of them, but pay a little bit more attention To the guy that has the press coverage. Can you talk a little bit about keys? How long should we be, or how long should a new official right be to be staying with their key? And the second thing is is kind of Recognizing keys with different formations. How do I know who my key is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and each each State might have a little bit different mechanic, but, as Joel indicated, that he is really disintegrates as soon as you realize that there's nothing to officiate and, as Joel said, you get press coverage, which means you got a defender that's up on the line of scrimmage and maybe he holds an offensive player that's trying to get out on a pass route. But once they start doing their thing, we've only got Three eyes really, a wing and a back judge. Three pairs of eyes to see Four or five receivers going downfield. It's tough and we got to them. Transition into some zone coverage.
Speaker 2:And if I were to talk about umpires, which is really one of my passions, and you know the same thing, we've got keys at the snap. You, the umpires, got in our association. It's got the guard center guard tackle Looking through that and I always tell our umpires to focus on one thing and then you'll see more. Don't try to scan the hole for people for the initial Snap, because we're looking for a false start at the snap. And you know, I can look at the center's helmet and still see him flinch with the ball, or I can see a guard take a Either is too quick or flinches and we've got a false start. So I always talk about your the key again as an umpire. In our case it's guard center, guard, tackle. Those are your keys. But as soon as the play develops, we we're gonna go to the point of attack as an umpire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do think it's important for new officials to be able to recognize Formations. You do have to have some some game intelligence or some game IQ of you know what, what. How they're setting up or setting up trips, or they've got a running back, they got a tight end. Your key as a back judge and as a wing either either side of the field right, your keys will change based on formation umpire. 99% of the time, unless they're doing a swinging gate or something like that, you're always gonna have that middle you know it's middle linemen. The referee is always gonna have the quarterback and the left tackle on that side of the line, so rarely do those two positions change.
Speaker 1:But in a five-man mechanic here in Colorado, your keys will change depending upon the offensive formation and you should spend some time Learning. And if they do this kind of formation, my keys gonna change or transition to this. But, like Kirk said, you're not staying with them throughout the entire play. Your eyes are not glued to that player. That's who you're watching at the snap and then you move to the point of attack and officiate the entire play and a good example is we.
Speaker 2:We spent a lot of time talking about Scrimmage downs. You've got you've also got kickoffs, and we talk about who your keys are. On a kickoff, we've got 22 guys moving in two different, two different directions, and then, as soon as those keys break up, now we're looking in some other space because the potential for a foul is a different location. So it's initial keys and then we're now into coverage zones and so I think guys read the word key and assume that's my guy throughout the down and that we just can't. We can't cover the game if we do that.
Speaker 1:So you, kirk, you mentioned a minute ago about the money line and you said there's a couple different money lines. I want to spend some time talking about that, just because that phrase seemed to be new to some of the folks at camp and granted, most of the people at camp, or I would say year One through maybe five right that were campers. So some of the first year and second year officials hadn't hadn't heard that term before. And you mentioned the money line, one instance being a goal line. Where what else do we consider a money line?
Speaker 2:You know, money line is anything that a team or an offense Needs to achieve in order to be successful. So we talk about if it's first and ten and it's a three yard gain, the money line is the the line to gain. It's it's ten yards from the snap, plus or minus a half yard is not gonna get us in trouble. A coach is not gonna yell that's a horrible spot. Now, if it's third and two and it's the money line, is that line to gain? And we come crashing in and we're Six inches from that that line to gain stake, the coach is Questioning whether we got the spot correct, and so that's why we come up with that money line. The goal line is kind of obvious. That's what everybody wants. So in my mind, the, the money line is the either the goal line or the line to gain stake, and we should always be aware when that is a critical moment.
Speaker 1:So talk about having two money lines on a single series of downs. So let's just say we're going in from the 12, right from the 12 yard line, heading into the goal line. You've got two money lines in that particular series. You've got a first down line At the two and then you've got the goal line. So if I'm an official new official, just kind of tell me how I monitor those and maybe how I treat those differently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, both wings are as Joel's example, if we could lay that out. So it's first and 10 from the 12 yard line. So we've got a line to gain stake at the two, and so let's say it's third down at, and third and two and A team snaps the ball. Our wings have to be aware of both the line to gain stake and the goal line. And A lot of times we will tell our wings, and sometimes on the radio, we'll say all right, you get the line to gain and the other wing gets the goal line, and so one wing will move immediately to the goal line, so he is stationary, he sees the goal line. The other one is stopping at the line to gain state and then transitioning to the goal line if they advance. But we need to be still and looking right down that line in case we need to make that critical rule.
Speaker 1:I kind of along this same Topic, kirk, and want to talk just a minute about spotting, especially when you've got a money line.
Speaker 1:That that's a critical point in the game and I know this might be a little bit of a sensitive subject. I don't know if the coaches and then we're trying to get a coach on here to to be with us on this podcast I'm not sure if they would agree or disagree. But if you have a team that's punting and the punt goes out at the 41 on film and and we judged it to have went out at the 40, right that that one yard difference Makes no difference to the other team, right, because it's it's first and 10 from no matter what. So that's not a critical money line. But when you're going in and the situation you just described, you know football is a game of inches. We need to be accurate with those spots. And can you talk just a little bit about, you know maybe, the difference between a fourth down punt play and we've got the game on the line, fourth quarter, thirty seconds left, we're back to our, you know, second or third and two going in. How critical do those spots matter?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's interesting? I deal with our huddle film and.
Speaker 2:I have never had a coach Send me a film on a punt play and say this was a horrible spot. It just doesn't happen plus or minus a yard, maybe even two yards, they don't care, they're gonna call the same play from the 44 yard line or the 42 yard line. But I do get plenty of film where they say Look at this play, they missed the spot. And again it's a fourth and fourth and one and we come crashing in and we he thinks we missed it. So try to imagine as the situations that you will hear the term that's a horrible spot. I, we've all heard it. Try to imagine when those are critical and be on high alert when those are important.
Speaker 1:So now let's move to a more visual piece, and I know we're doing a podcast or, you know, internet radio here, so we're going to try and articulate the best we can. But we talked a lot about flag throwing and how to throw the flag. As an official, when our campers were out there, we observed them and I know this wasn't intentional, but you know, when they would throw a flag it almost looked mad, right, they would throw that flag down and they just it almost looked violent, right, in some instances. How do you throw? How are you supposed to throw the flag? And keep in mind, we're trying to describe this best we can on radio, but you know, how do you throw the flag and look professional and unbiased and not like you just caught somebody speeding, yeah that we saw some of that where there was the aggressive flag out of the pocket and I'm going to get you and it just it's just not a good look.
Speaker 2:And so I would encourage newer officials and even veteran officials watch the big guys, watch the college games, watch the NFL guys that the way they throw their flag is the way we want to learn how to throw our flag. We joked a little bit One of our attendees of the clinic he was on the wing and I saw him bend his legs, reach for his flag and almost used his legs to launch the flag up in the air. And I was trying to figure out what. What made that look so different? And then I realized it's the bending of the legs.
Speaker 2:If you just reach for your flag and throw it up, it does not look like you're trying to put that up into the, the, the ozone layer. You're just, you're just flagging, you're not being aggressive, and so same thing, like if you see a hold or even a personal foul. If we reach into our pocket and throw that flag, like I got you, it just does not look neutral. And our goal is to look very neutral, very vanilla, very no emotions, and I think the way we throw our flag is a critical piece to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the other topics that we covered was new officials feel like they have to throw the flag at the player that committed the foul, and that's not really what we want them to do, because we don't want to hit a player right with the bag, and we actually, I think, seen there's you know, it's the NFL level right, somebody got hit in the eye right at one time by a flag coming in, so we really don't want to throw him at the player. What matters is the yard line that the foul occurred at, and so even if you get your flag to the correct yard line, it doesn't have to be right at the player. What we're concerned about is the enforcement spot or the yard line that the flag or the foul occurred, so that's more important. So if you can drop your flag at a yard line just to mark that rather than throwing it at the player, that's what we're encouraging officials to do.
Speaker 2:Totally agree.
Speaker 2:You're kind of describing if I'm a wing and the play goes away from me and I see a player charging the back of an opponent during a long run or something, I'm not going to try to launch my flag to exactly where that foul occurred.
Speaker 2:I'm going to probably move down field and toss it so that everybody can see it and it'll be at that yard line. That lines up where the foul occurred, because that's where we're going to assess the penalty in that particular case. And I think one of the other things that we somebody mentioned after the play is over, we want to hear a funny whistle. So if you're a new official, we talked about the funny whistle versus a whistle and there's other terms that I think are used, but in my crew I want to hear a whistle. Like you have got to pay attention to me because I've got some information. The last thing we want to do is throw a flag, plays over and nobody knew that. You threw a flag and now the chains are moved, everybody thinks it's a touchdown and now we bring it back and we've lost credibility.
Speaker 1:Alright. Well, I know we always run out of time. We've got two topics left Kirk to cover in about three minutes. So the first topic is preventive officiating. Again, new officials coming into this camp this week. They never have heard the term preventive officiating when we say that, what do we mean by that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great component of the game. Nobody wants to watch a football game where there's a flag on every down and there are so many opportunities for us as officials to talk to players. When there's a potential foul is not an advantage to them, whether it's a hold away from the play or they're alignment at the line of scrimmage. At the snap you've got a wide out. That's just a little bit over the ball. Maybe we don't flag it. Maybe we take advantage of the next play and say, hey, you've got to line up on your side of the ball. That is preventive officiating. We don't have to throw a flag when it's not an advantage to the offense or defense Preventive officiating. I think coaches they probably don't realize how valuable that is to the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that kind of goes in line with the topic that we have with Scott Lewis last week talking about discretionary fouls versus safety fouls. I feel like safety fouls those need to get flagged when they happen because somebody can get hurt. But if it's a hold, if it's a potential encroachment, if it's maybe a split quarter of a second, a false start or early start on somebody, we should be looking for a reason not to throw that flag.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think preventive officiating is not emphasized enough in our association.
Speaker 1:I mean, this was a scrimmage. It was a camp for the kids as well as it was a camp for us, right, and the coaches were already getting on us and the season isn't even here. Talk a little bit about coach interaction, new officials, tips and techniques. How do I deal with an aggressive coach? And I know we spent a little bit of time almost every week kind of giving some advice around this. But it just became clear at camp, right, this wasn't even a live game and we were already getting barked at. So how do you get that thick skin? How do you interact with coaches? What's the best thing for new officials to kind of have in their mind?
Speaker 2:It's an aggressive game and Joel and I you have been in those heated situations we always laugh about. We pregame with the coach and the coach is, yeah, I don't yell at officials. That's almost like, yeah, you can expect to be yelled at most of the game. When he says that, you know and it's not just the head coach but the assistant coaches there's dynamics in Colorado. We say we don't talk to the assistant coaches. We tell the head coach, hey, I'm done listening to that guy and we use our flag when we need to.
Speaker 2:But you know, I've talked about how a coach has a lot of emotion and he brings it to the conversation and if we as officials take it up above that coach, there's no chance that that coach is going to back down. And so if we can think in terms of if we stay below the coach's emotion, we're better off keeping the coach in the game. We just need to calmly talk through what he has. Sometimes coaches just just want to unload so that he can show his players that he is behind them, and he's trying to motivate his players, which is maybe not good, but it is the way it is. And so there's little techniques that we can use to keep a coach in the game, keep him calm, maybe answer his questions.
Speaker 2:A lot of times coaches just want to know that they've been heard. Unfortunately it's yelling the way he's communicating, but if you just look at it and again watch the NFL guys, they get yelled at. Coach wants to vent his frustration. The wing official will listen and he might even go as far to say I'll let the calling official know. The last thing we want to do is say Coach, that's not my call. That does not help the situation. The coach is like well then, find the guy that's made the bad call. So use some terminology that will keep the coach calm.
Speaker 2:Say I'll find out for you, coach, when the opportunity lends itself, I'll find out what he did wrong. We in Colorado are all about trying to get the coach the number. We actually announced the number. I don't know that. All states do that. It helps. The coach then focuses attention on what we did wrong. They're all. They're watching a huddle film. They're watching from the press box. They probably see it and if we identify the number, they're more likely to chew on the kid than us. All that stuff plays into the coach relationship and I suppose we could spend an entire podcast with a coach finding ways to improve that communication.
Speaker 1:I agree with you a thousand percent, kirk. My only thing is there's a fine line between addressing a coach, answering a coach and abuse from a coach. So that coach that just continues to go on and on and on about the same play that happened 20 minutes ago. That's something we can't allow to happen on the field as officials, and one of the retention issues I think that we've had just across the nation is coach and even parent abuse. And so there just becomes a line where you want to be respectful, you want to maintain a relationship with the coach, but as an official that doesn't mean you should allow yourself to be abused either.
Speaker 2:Totally agree, and we've heard so many coaches. They get frustrated because they think we just show up on Friday night and become the authority that we didn't prepare. And he's been practicing in the heat and he's supporting his players. So anything we can do to show them that, hey, we are working hard, we're about the game, we want to do as the good of job as we can. We're not perfect. He knows that Doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't expect us to be perfect. But all of that is again communication and keeping a calm demeanor. When we lose our cool it does not help.
Speaker 1:Kirk, thanks so much for your time and don't forget to join us next week when we're hoping to actually get a coach to join us and maybe we can put them on the spot a little bit for a change. Don't forget if you've got a question for Kirk and I, you can go to yourfirstdownscom. Again, that's yourfirstdownscom. Send in your question and we'll address it on air Joel, thank you again for the evening of talking through some of this stuff.
Speaker 2:Love the game. Joel and I are dedicated to this. Appreciate you guys listening.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for spending part of your day with us and hope everybody has a good rest of the week.