Merry Christmas to Me

For a few years now I've been wanting a new bag for my football gear.  The one I have has served me well since I began officiating in 1989 (it's an American Tourister), but it's beginning to show it's age.

In addition to the fact that the frame is now much less rigid than it was in the beginning, it's beginning to fray in places, and that I seem to be collecting quite a few odds and ends that sort of get all jumbled together, duffel bags are now made with wheels.  That alone makes getting a new bag desirable.

So for the past two years I've been on the lookout for a new bag.  I don't just want any bag with wheels (the main problem is that I keep finding bags with a large main compartment and very few other pockets); I want something where I can store my shoes, flags, beanbags, game cards, pencils, down indicators, shirts, pants, belt, hat and all of the extras that I've got.  That means lots of pockets.

I believe I have finally found what I've been looking for:



It's an Athalon, 15-pocket, 22" wheeling duffel bag.  The dimensions are almost exactly what my current bag is:  22x11x11 and it has 15 pockets -- FIFTEEN.  That should be plenty of space to store all my stuff.  AND it was on sale for $79.95 (MSRP $220) with free shipping. 

Mrs. Ref said, "Merry Christmas, baby."  So it's been done ordered.

I'm hoping I'll be happy with it (I hate ordering stuff I can't actually see); but so far, my only gripe is that it didn't come in all black or a black/gray combo.  I ordered the black/blue combo because Mrs. Ref thought that there would be fewer teams who had that color combination than black/red.

I can't wait for it to arrive on my doorstep.