Football Official

High school official here: 1. Yes, the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty has a bit of judgement with it. The rule book officially says, “No player shall… Use profanity, insulting language, or vulgar language or gestures.” So by rule, any curse word heard could be flagged. I can’t speak to the officials at the games you’re going to, however, typically in our association, we try to only throw that flag if the language includes a racial slur or if the vulgar language is directed at someone in particular. 2. So by too many, do you mean your favorite team gets called for it a lot or just in general? Most football fans will agree holding happens on every play. Again, in our association, we try to only get holds that affect the play. Example, run to the right side of the field and a LT holds. An LT holding probably doesn’t affect the run to the right. However, that is not specified in the rule book. So if an official sees it, they can call it. So if a hold is there, it can be called. 3. Water breaks happen as close to the 6 minute mark as possible. Sometimes, yes. That could be a high at 6:30 if the referee feels that stoppage in the game is the best we will get around that time. Sometimes if a drive is ongoing, it may have to wait a bit. In your example, no a water break should not have been called when a player’s helmet came off because that is not a stoppage in play. That is in the middle of a drive. It sounds as though based on your example, they waited until the next stoppage of play (first down) to call for a water break. I have absolutely no issue with how that was handled. 4. Would love more competence and clock management examples. Those are broad terms. Both coaches and fans also do not have competence at times. Do officials make mistakes? Absolutely. We are human. I do hope they strive to be as perfect as you seem to be. As far as your targeting comment, we do not have replay in high school football to be able to confirm or deny a targeting call. So it is solely the judgement of the covering official. We try not to call targeting unless it is egregious to avoid a high school player having to sit out the rest of the game for a 50/50 call. That’s why most of the time, we side with no targeting rather than targeting. It’s hard to see all aspects of targeting and make a decision in a split second. Different levels of football have different rules and points of emphasis. So comparing high school officiating to college/NFL is apples and oranges. We have a motto in our association, “Be the change you want to see.” That’s how we try to recruit new officials because of the shortage we are having. So if you are that unhappy with officiating, sign up to be an official. You can help to make changes you would like to see. You can also see how difficult it is. I was a fan and had season tickets to a team before I became an official. Like you, I thought they were terrible most of the time. Now I see how difficult it is and it allows me to be more patient with officials when I watch football.