My husband never lets me down, In true man form, I asked him if I could ask him a football question and he burst out laughing before I could even get to the question. I wanted to know whom the officials worked for. 2 breathes and 6 tears later, he manages to pull himself together and says “the NFL.”
Duh. What I meant was, do they always work with a particular team or area of the country or stadium or division? Eventually, he provided me with following answer:
College referees stay in their conference (Big 10, Big East, SEC, etc).
Professional referees work wherever they are needed throughout the NFL.
Thank you.
After a brief discussion about special teams, time outs, and Dan LaFever (seriously, how is this guy not going to be a star someday), he pretty much startles the cats and dog out of the room with his continuous laughter and I told him I was going to beat him in predictions next year. He countered that the only thing I would base picks off of was perky butts. I said there was probably some justification for that since you can’t have a perky butt without having powerhouse thighs. He said “what are you going to do about linemen.” I replied “more love handles, less impact?”
The laughter continued.
This is all in good fun, of course. He plans to participate in a high school reunion football game in October and it would look better if I could yell at the ref “what are you, blind – that was pass interference” and knew what pass interferences was. Isn’t pass interference just an interception gone wrong?
Stop laughing, Fred.
As for last night's BSC championship game, I came in during the second half. It was boring until the "freshman quarterback" got into his groove and kept Texas from getting smashed. I did think it was hilarious that one of the announces said McElroy had not lost a game he started since 8th grade and at that moment the camera caught him picking his nose. Mark Ingram was also pretty amazing to watch when he came back in the game - I think he is going to have problems with that hamstring for a while though. I was glad Alabama won, but doubt it would have happened if Colt McCoy had not been injured. And frankly, I don't care. College football is not nearly as interesting as pro, and this weekend looks to be exciting. I have not figured out my picks yet, but they will be forthcoming.
And I will not base them on butts and love-handles.
Pro refs work as part of a team, though, and unlike baseball umpires, they don't rotate positions on the field -- a ref is always a ref, an umpire is always an umpire, etc. They work regular jobs during the week, then show up at the game location a day before so they can meet and review the upcoming game. There has been a push to try and make officials full-time employees. They rotate games/divisions. And I love games that Ed Hochuli works because his body is easy on the eyes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the expanded explanation.
ReplyDeleteEd Hochuli . . . I will be on the lookout!