Without trying to give anyone a “history lesson,” every innovation in the game has forced the officials to adjust to that innovation. Take the forward pass, for example. This maneuver is widely regarded as the greatest innovation in the sport, and it caused all manner of rules changes, and therefore coverage changes, for the officials. As the rules evolve from year-to-year, so must officials’ mechanics evolve with the rules changes. While we are not likely to ever again see a rule change as dramatic as legalizing the forward pass, we get rules changes every year that require us to modify our techniques. For 2007, consider the tightening of the safety rules regarding helmet-to-helmet contact. As officials, we’re told more explicitly to consider player disqualification for violating this rule; and we have to adjust our mindsets, if nothing else, to that stronger stricture.

Other changes take place because the various rule-making bodies (NFL, NCAA, NFHS, state associations and local youth groups) all have an interest in keeping the rules as constant as possible, while also recognizing that there are differences skills, speed and quality of players at the different levels. Often officials work at multiple different levels during the same basic season. To the extent mechanics can be kept the same, the better coverage is up and down the line. But mechanics do need to be altered due to both rules differences and the other variables between levels within the sport. Faster players tend to dictate larger crews; so do better-coached teams who can teach players more sophisticated ways to avoid detection of illegal techniques (like holding, for example). At one level a pass may be “uncatchable;” and at another, this is no factor at all. Officials’ mechanics are altered to cover (or not cover) these situations based on the typical application of the rules and their importance to how the game is played at the level where the rule is in effect.

Still other changes occur because the way the game is played is generally improving over time. For example, there is a long-term trend in place where officials are encouraged to move farther back from the action at all levels. While not ignoring that having a close presence to the players is a very good “preventive officiating” technique, being able to see more of the play and for a longer time is often better and more important to calling a good contest than is close proximity to the players as the play ends. For 2007, there has been a change to the GHSA Officials manual that subtly allows the wing and deep officials to stay somewhat “wider” on most plays than had been encouraged in previous years.

The technology for evaluating mechanics is providing even more opportunities to drive changes. For example, with the elimination of the “second forward pass” in the NFHS rules, making the judgment of forward / backward has become even more of an issue. This is a call for the Referee to make. But he is often not in the best position to see this play. In fact, the wing officials most often have the best view of this. The growing wide availability of first video tape and now DVD recordings of games has given officials tools that have led to changing mechanics that take advantage of the wings’ better view of this play. The technology has allowed quicker diagnosis of problems which has, in turn, led to quicker solutions to be found. Mechanics can be changed in only a year or two now, where years ago it took many times that to get general recognition of the problem not to mention years more to reach consensus on a solution.

Sanctioning bodies also drive change, independently. Although officiating at the high school level is best considered an avocation (not a vocation) to its practitioners, there is a long-term trend in place to increaser the “professionalism” of the avocation. This strength of this trend varies from sport to sport and geographic area to area. Largely these differences are driven by the strength and professionalism of the sanctioning bodies’ leadership. We’re fortunate in Georgia to have strong leadership in GHSA. As a consequence, we have the 6-man crew for high school football games in Georgia while few neighboring states are even thinking of trying this. (This was the main subject of a previous newsletter this year, V3 N3.) Changes in the legal climate also impact how we do our jobs. For example, in 2007 we tightened the rules on weather delays. In 2006 GHSA mandated lightning detectors for all outdoor contests. We will now suspend play whenever game management warns us of dangerous conditions in the area. We will do this unconditionally. But this year we were also trained by GHSA to also stop the game if we observe with our own eyes conditions that exceed NFHS guidelines. This was to keep the games as safe as possible even if the lightning detector (or its operator) somehow malfunctions. It is a small change; but one that could save lives. And it is typical of many changes that improving safety and professionalism bring forth every year.

Just as you would never think of returning to the main game tactics prevalent in the “leather helmet era” of the sport, so would we never think of returning to the loosey-goosey officiating mechanics that were part of that same era. We think that is a good thing for us all. We hope you’ll help us in this continuing effort to improve our coverage of the game. Though you may not have specific mechanics change suggestions, every time you evaluate a crew for us, you give our local body another chance to consider how well (or not) our current mechanics are working. Over time, we learn much from this source that leads us to changes. In fact, part of the “wider is better” mechanics change mentioned earlier in this newsletter originally sprang, in part, from studying changes suggested by just such crew evaluations. Please use the “Evaluate a Crew” link on our web site, www.mcfoafootball.orgg, every time you can. You never know what important contribution you might make that way.

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