Mechanics

Tonight I had a football meeting. These could be better, but at least it's something. One of the things we talk about at these are mechanics; not necessarily rules, per se, but more on the HOW of how we officiate the game.

So we talked about the importance of keeping an eye on the clock. Because if things go wrong during a game, it will most likely involve the clock. In this instance, I relayed what happened at my first game of the season. Late in the 2nd quarter, I noticed we had something like 2:40 left until halftime. There was a running play, and when I looked at the clock, something didn't look right, but I couldn't quite figure it out. Then another play, and the clock now read 3:14.

Yep . . . the clock was running the wrong way. So we got that fixed.

And we talked about where the Referee stands during punts. We decided that he would stand on the Line Judge's side of the field -- that will give us better coverage if things break down.

And a couple of rules things: the importance of knowing live ball and dead ball fouls, and the ultimate weirdness of 4th down offensive pass interference which results in a loss of 15 yards and change of possession.

Yes, these are things I think about when I don't have anything else to do.