More @NFL Punishment Buffoonery

Many may think given my (gridiron) football affiliations I would be speaking of the truly preposterous decision of the NFL to actually go forward with its appeal of the deflategate case with the filing of the appellate brief in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Actually I was shocked (shocked I tell you) to learn the NFL has hired Paul Clement to argue the matter. News flash to the Brady camp ... this barrister is no joke and has argued before SCOTUS more than anyone else on earth right now. He argued such cases as ObamaCare and DOMA to name others ... and is likely going to wind up on the very bench he often argues before depending which was the Presidential election goes in 2016, and the health of one Justice Ginsberg. The Brady camp would be wise to hire some higher power staff on their side to match.

But alas, I am not talking about that particular brand of NFL buffoonery, it is the type where the NFL continues to fine players for their "uniform violations" which support good causes. While I wrote about DeAngelo Williams the other day, today it is William Gay and his fine of $5787 for wearing purple cleats to support his mother who was killed in an act of domestic violence.

Oh look, here is a handy list of NFL players who have been arrested for domestic violence in the last couple of years from SI. Yes indeed, we certainly don't want any NFL player to make a positive statement about domestic violence since the league is doing such a good job disciplining its players for it.

Just as a casual reminder regarding the rageaholic Cowboy, Greg Hardy and what he was found guilty of (from SI):

On May 13, Hardy was arrested for communicating threats and assault against his then-girlfriend. Hardy reportedly threw the woman into a bathroom, then dragged her into the bedroom, choked her, picked her up again, and threw her on a couch covered in firearms. He also reportedly threatened to shoot her if she told anyone about the fight.

You want to do something constructive NFL? While you have the cancer scam going in October ... why don't you continue in November with "Stop Domestic Violence" and give everyone purple cleats, gloves, and towels. $h!t you can even make some money on it, like you do the cancer promotion. For the love of all things holy though, stop protecting these thugs, and let players like Gay who have been touched by this crime wear something purple.

To do otherwise continues to deepen the turmoil the NFL finds itself in with regard to player conduct and the absurd punishments it hands out ... which (spoiler alert) will be further degraded by the decision in the 2nd Circuit.

Please oh please let deflategate go to SCOTUS when the NFL gets crushed there ... and please let Justice Scalia write for the majority. #lawgeek

It was all going so well ... until the riot

Cedarville Meant No Harm, Parents Say After Arrest

CEDARVILLE -- The clash that ended with the arrest of their head football coach for inciting a riot started when his team lined up to shake the other team's hands, said Cedarville parents interviewed Friday.

Those parents were interviewed at the best spot in town to draw a large crowd -- a home football game for Cedarville High School. Friday, their team hosted Marshall.

Parents and players were in Elkins a week earlier. When they left -- their buses escorted by sheriff's deputies -- they knew the game had ended in a ruckus, the parents said. But they thought the incident was over. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Arkansas Online.

Kicking Back Comments: Take a look at the story, while full of opinion, there are a couple of things that stood out to me ... one very practical thing too.

I had to laugh out loud when I read the following from the article:

"The first sign of any trouble in Elkins was a mid-field incident while the game had less than a minute left to play."

Sorry, but I just don't buy that and while this may have been a sign for sure, I doubt it was the first. As referees we have to obtain a "baseline" of behavior fairly quickly regarding the contest we are refereeing. Intelligence professionals sometimes refer to a "baseline" as the regular happenings in a particular environment. It is when we start to witness excursions from this baseline we should take note.

Sounds cloak and dagger and honestly it sort of is as a substantial part of refereeing is reading people of all types and being able to take necessary action on issues that arise. Take the above as an example. What were the clues that could have indicated something was going to happen? Ask yourself:

Was this a significant match for some reason? 

If yes, what was the reason?

Were any of the participants in a "funk" and this includes the coaches (one of which who was later arrested)?

What is your plan to deal with that?

Even before the match started, what was your "mass confrontation" plan?

Meet as a group and take notes?

Actively try to separate players?

If things go really bad, what is the exfil plan?

Run like heck to the car?

Defend each other?

Call the police?

While this later part may be rare, it is good to think about as frankly when it goes wrong, you don't want to have to think too much, just react and follow a plan you have already previously considered.

Now for the practical tip ... if it's safe, take notes. Here we had a coach who crossed the field to engage the other teams players and as the report goes with racial epithets. This coach was subsequently arrested for his conduct and is up for his court date and possible dismissal from the school he works for. As a referee if we have witnessed something, we need to report it. Our duty to the players does not end until we have left the field and frankly any willful blindness to something like this is shirking one of our most important duties ... to protect the players.

Think about this too, the final act did not play out until the players lined up to say "good game." If you get a whiff that something bad is going to happen, why even have them shake hands? Yeah it's a nice tradition, but when trouble will follow, why do it?

Your Superbowl Referee ... Terry McAulay

So right on the heels of (3) US Referees being names to the 2014 World Cup, we have the announcement of Terry McAulay named to head the refereeing crew for Super Bowl XXXIX. His crew for the upcoming Super Bowl will be Carl Paganelli (umpire), Jim Mello (head linesman), Tom Symonette (line judge), Scott Steenson (field judge), Dave Wyant (side judge) and Steve Freeman (back judge).

In researching Mr. McAulay you get the pretty standard stuff. Was a high school and college official, married, couple of kids, went to LSU, and has a computer science degree.

Where I really got interested is his involvement was the fact that he worked (2) previous Superbowls (LXIII and XLVIII) and in "bottlegate" on December 16th, 2001. A match between Cleveland and Jacksonville. From Wikipedia:

"The Browns were driving toward the east end zone for what would have been the winning score. Browns' wide receiver Quincy Morgan caught a pass for a first down on 4th and 1. After quarterback Tim Couch spiked the ball on the next play to stop the clock, McAulay announced that they were going to review Morgan's catch, saying that the replay official had buzzed him, indicating for a replay review, before Couch spiked the ball.[7] 

In reviewing the play, McAulay determined that Morgan never had control of the ball, thus the pass was incomplete, and the Jaguars were awarded the ball. However, fans in the "Dawg Pound" began throwing plastic beer bottles and other objects directed at and striking players and officials. McAulay then declared the game over and sent the teams to the locker rooms. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue called the game supervisor to override McAulay's decision, sending the players back onto the field after a thirty-minute delay, where the Jaguars ran out the last seconds under a hail of debris.[7]"

If you want to see some crazy behavior, take a looks at the You Tube clip from that incident below:

So honestly I'm not sure what's worse about this whole thing from the following choices:

1. The fan(atics) pathetic and frankly dangerous behavior.
2. TV announcers of this clip making asses of themselves by not only thinking, but actually saying that "... the ref should take control ... of the fans ... by explaining his decision." Soon after saying the referee should end the game, then after he does criticize him for it. I don't even know where to start with that one.
3. A stunningly stupid move by then commish Paul Tagliabue in ordering his refereeing crew back out into the field, in a hail of beer bottles (yeah but there're just plastic says the announcers), and directly into harms way, to play the last seconds.

I was stunned somewhat speechless by this. 

Not the fan(atics) ... I almost expect this type of behavior at times. Certainly not be the announcers as a rule they spot drivel. However in the commish's decision was really poor to put teams and referees in harms way.

Now very interestingly, I actually read the rule on this (here) and was really surprised at what I saw.

From the law:

Under no circumstances is the referee authorized to cancel, postpone, terminate, or declare forfeiture of a game unilaterally.

Yipes!!

A referee must contact the comissh office to get direction. A referee can not do it on their own.

I can almost, almost, see the point when it comes to weather, but fan disorder like this, and you have to call a guy x miles away watching on TV and he says "get back out there."

That seems a little crazy, and even worse, distrustful of the assessment of the refereeing team. After all, they trust them with an outcome of the game, but not a decision to continue it or not?

As referees, do we have this authority? If so, where in the LOTG does it lie?

Well for those who did not know, we do, and it can be found in Law 5 which states a referee has the power to:

Stop(s), suspends or abandons the match, at his discretion, for any infringements of the Laws.

This is true for all levels of the match and it happens at nearly all levels of the match. Just take a look.
I would think this one ended well before the military helicopter landed on the field.

How far would you tell the commish to pound sand if they said "get back out there" in this case? 

You touch a ref, you get ejected?

So I think this comes down to referees having to get some thicker skin and less "rabbit ears."

This post was inspired by the incident involving Chris Cook of the Minnesota Vikings against their match against da Bears on Sunday December 1st.

An excellent video of the "contact" is here from Bleacher Report.

I think this is a crap call personally ... for a few reasons:

• Consistent punishment.

Take a look at this article from SB Nation. It has a number of recent events where a player intentionally contacted a referee. When you roll over each .gif take note that only Cook was ejected.

So you mean to tell me Tramon Williams contacted the referee by accident (as he offered). That one was the worst of all when the back judge(?) was pushed out of anger and frustration. Yeah it got a flag, but no ejection there?

We can just get absurd too when Cordarrelle Patterson as part of a touchdown celebration, high fived a referee (again a back judge?). Clearly intentional, and not even a flag. Why was this contact OK, but other were not?

• "Zero Tolerance" approach

Like I have said many times, I don't like zero tolerance anything because it gives zero latitude for a governing body and eventually requires odd twists in logic to rationalize the actions of punishing one, but not another in a "zero tolerance environment."

• Referees need to buck up and recognize it is a contact sport

This may be more controversial that most want to hear, but a good bump can be a great wake up call for a referee. Now don't get me wrong a referee is not a pincushion for abuse and should not take any contact that is threatening or puts anyone is real danger. But honestly, a nudge, pull, tug, bump ... give me a break. Yes it is a form of dissent, and as I have said before based on the sport it can be interpreted differently ... but there is some latitude in there.

By way of a personal story:

My very first game as a MLS referee was in San Jose, the Earthquake was playing Colorado. So on either side of the ball I had guys like Eric Wynalda along with Marcel Balboa. Welcome to MLS Pete.

So about 30m in, it was a bit ... tense ... and the teams new I was green, green, green, and took advantage. In one particular spot near midfield, when going for a ball, I got in a passing lane, and Marcel flattened me ... ran right through.

He could have avoided me ... he didn't ... and he knew it. He was sending a message, and I got it.

PK Before his first MLS Match

It would have been insane for me to send him off. Not just because of the fact he was the reason why folks were there, paying to see, but because he wan't trying to do anything more than communicate.

It was a fabulous entrance into MLS honestly. He was saying "If you want to stay, you have to toughen up."

He was right.

I went on to make a few more mistakes in that match and by all rights should have failed the assessment for failing to send a player off for a nasty tackle in front of the benches. 

I did not, but can assure you it was a very long flight home from San Jose.

Now, I have had the displeasure of being assaulted many times, and knocked around a fair amount, and frankly understood it was part of the deal. These touches are not that type of communication. They are a visceral way of saying "come on ref" and not much more.

Now, there is an argument to be made that this small stuff leads to bigger stuff later, and there is truth to that. But the league, any league has to understand that they can legislate all actions of emotional beings and expect an entertaining result. I think allow players, and yes, referees to emote in this way is a good thing.

It can of course get out of hand as it did below:

Then again, you don't even need physical contact for something to get out of control.
Viewer warning of explicit language. Note, not a hand was placed on this umpire by the manager.



You want to referee in the bigs boys and girls ... you have to be able to take a little grab now and then.
Deal with it without resorting to throwing a piece of brightly cloth, or showing a piece of plastic.

At Least I'm not a Little League Umpire

For those following the aftermath of the Newtown tragedy, there was a recent lawsuit filed by a CT attorney named Irving Pinsky.

While I am going to stay far, far away from the merits of the suit, he recently decided to withdraw his $100M lawsuit against various defendants, on behalf of one of the surviving students.

Now in defending his decision to withdraw, he spoke about the public pressure he was under. He detailed the complaints and death threats he has received since filing the complaint. In doing so however, he used a very odd analogy. From the article:

He declined to elaborate, though said "we reserve all rights to bring up this request again," in spite of complaints and threats he says he's received.

"I always figure no matter how many death threats I get, it's less than what the little league umpires get," said Pinsky.

He's kidding right?

Now I agree that youth referees of all sports deserve special praise for their time spent, and things can get heated for certain. However, what would seem to be an "off the cuff" remark, serves to trivialize the seriousness of the Newtown tragedy and the legal action action he brought in response to it.

Weather the action has merit is yet to be seen. His analogy however, has none to me.

Please stop talking ...

So big kudos to Paul Levy in my book for another excellent take on a youth soccer incident. One that I believe he read just right.

Take a look at "When "violent" is not "brutal"" from NRAH.

Let me say that I largely agree with Paul's analysis and appreciate his candor in the matter. After viewing the clip embedded in the article and the article itself I had two similar follow on points.

First, I really dislike the media. I recognize in a way I am part of the institution with Kicking Back, but there is a stark difference. I write to provoke thought through strong and sometimes "tongue in cheek" analysis. I do not like "sensationalistic" commentary.

I have commented about this in the past with some of the reporting that is done around the MLS and is intended to get a headline, not perform genuine analysis. This story strikes me as similar, lots of flash, not much substance. To somehow turn a foul from the back (that was not deserving of the punches thrown by the opponent) into a violent attack where "law enforcement" had to be called in and people were calling for "punishment" under the legal system is just ridiculous. Player lost their cool, yes. Parents behaving badly, yes. Media grossly inflating a "school yard" skirmish, defiantly.

Second, and please put this in the advice column, DON'T TALK TO THE MEDIA as a referee.

Now for those who are not familiar, there is a policy for how to conduct yourself, and it can be found in the Administrative Handbook here on page 43, and states:

Guidelines for Contact With Media
Referees

Game Officials should use good judgment based on the referee Code of Ethics when speaking to the media.

Game Officials should:

1. Not, under any conditions, discuss the politics of the game or the sport. 
2. Stick to what you know as it relates directly to your personal experience in the game of soccer. 
3. Relate only factual information about a game. Do not discuss judgment calls that were made. 
4. Avoid making declarations, which amount to speaking for other people. 
5. Represent yourself, your state association and the game in a positive and enthusiastic way.

That aside, very little good can come from sharing an opinion with the media as a referee. Listen, I get it, it can be a thrill to be interviewed about something you love to do. I've been there, and made that mistake a couple of times, so I don't fault this referee at all as I am certain this was his first rodeo.

However, don't get caught off guard. This can indeed happen to any of us on any given day, and don't be fooled, reporters are not there to make friends with you when the cameras are rolling, just get a story. After the cameras are off, you're on your own and speaking personally I have found having a relationship with a reporter on a personal basis is not a bad thing. Like most things, it depends on the person.

So, if you find yourself in a similar situation ... heck even without the media, but parents asking "what the heck happened", your responsibility is to make a report to the league. Frankly that is your best response. If someone (other than the league) wants to know what happened, you are better off saying "I'm sorry, I can't discuss this until the league is made aware of the facts", or something to that effect. That of course is not reasonable if interviewed by the police ... but even there ... just the facts, not an opinion.

Don't forget, those who are asking may not be all good faith actors and may indeed twist your words to make a trap for fools. It is not unimaginable to find yourself on a witness stand defending your comments (or video of your comments) in some form of litigation.

You can't get in trouble for not saying anything to media/parents/coaches ... so play it safe, and don't.

Written reports and answering media questions are certainly a part of being a higher level referee, and aspects that we will address later in time as I personally have learned some brutal lessons there.

Death toll rises to 79 from soccer riots in Egypt

Cairo (CNN) -- The death toll from a riot at a soccer game in Egypt rose to 79, officials said Thursday, as many continued to mourn and look for the reasons behind the deadly melee.

A somber crowd of hundreds were in Cairo's Tahrir Square Thursday, some saying chants decrying Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Many were wearing the popular apparel of the Al-Ahly club. ...

See the whole story and video below here, from CNN.


Kicking Back Comments: At 1:55 of this video the reporter is describing the scene of fan(atics) entering the field and celebrating with the team after a goal. This reporter continues by saying regarding this, "... the referee didn't do anything ... ."


What exactly is a referee to do?


For me, find your team, find security, get safe, abandon, and write a match report. For the matches I have abandoned this is what I generally have done. What we see on the video is nothing like I have ever experienced before personally however. Primary concern I think in a case like this is get you and your team safely away however you can. Remove your jersey and get out of there to a safe location. I take pride in my uniform, but not more than my life. A referee can write a report that details a situation like this without staying to watch "who wins" at the end. Report what you see on the way to the door, don't feel compelled to stay to observe as referees are a natural target when chaos erupts. Even if you think the violence will not come to you (as with here it would seem political unrest played a part, not a match decision), get out.


Take a look here, 79 people were sadly killed, and scores of others no doubt hurt. Don't be a statistic.


Get your team, get safe, and get out.