What to do when other team is dirty...

Do you have film of the game? If so send it in to your association and if you really want to cause an uproar call a reporter or two you know and show it to them.

Thanks for the suggestion of asking our league not to schedule those refs again, I hadn't even thought of that as an option. I will be sending that letter tomorrow.

Told a kid the same thing, it was assault and not football. I had a player on the team who could have kicked his tail sideways but didn't put him a position to do that. My linemen enforced that season, very stout players, all high character. The referees for our league watched the kid and ejected him later in the game. We don't put up with it.


If they do it and the refs are complicit, different story. Play through every whistle, never turn your back on a player, attack their hands to keep them off you, if they rush you low their face is usually down, make them eat dirt by kicking out your feet out behind you for anything other than a pull block trying to clear past you. Double team their trouble causers. If you get them frustrated or control them it changes the tone and timbre of their game style.

Tell your players to cover up and get low, shield selves from big hits and protect the ball, expect a yard or two less from your plays in terms of expected results and game management to compensate, protecting the ball is protecting yourself when the opponent tries to dirty it up. Tough close to the collar games are like that.



Stop moving uncovereds to the next level, flatten them on the LOS for any dirty business givers. Wear them down. Take the fight to their fighters the right way, as a team.

You have a player wild enough don't be afraid to place him position to enforce at FB or second TE especially. If their main problem causer is on the LOS unbalance his way and smother him.

If he's on the second level run blockers at him from each side off combinations. If he takes self out of plays then set him up for counters, but this is a team item and it is everyone involved. That's part of learning to take blocks to them, attack them at the line of scrimmage(LOS) and don't let them take dirty business to the backfield or get behind other blockers where their legs and feet are at danger.


My preference is tighter gaps to control that, but if you space wide still do it, because that wide spacing gives the refs on all sides of the play much more room to view the conduct. Get immediate clarifications from the officials to have a standard by which to guide players. Life isn't fair, football usually isn't either, it's finding ways to address that and remain competitive that you have to do.


Tell every ball fake to assume they will be tackled, don't jog through the stuff. Watch the man you have or the player facing you all the way back to your huddle.

Honestly, if the situation was that bad, I probably would have packed up the kids and forfeited the game. You have to protect your kids; IMO finishing a game isn't worth risking getting the kidfs hurt. Also, taking your kids home will FORCE someone from the state association to watch the film.

Yesterday, we were playing a sophmore game in a town known for their "biased"officials.. The other team had a nosetackle that was hauling off and punching our center in the stomah and his aim was getting lower. It was obvious, SOOO OBVIOUS... We asked the official on our sideline to watch it and he said he would. The very next snap, that NT threw 3 punches at our center. The officials didn't do anything about it; so we did. We called a timeout, went out on the field, circled up ALL of the officials and told them that we were not going to put up with the bullsh-t.

Thankfully, a member from the opposing team's staff came out and read that NT the riot act. He got pulled for the rest of the quarter (should've been the whole gd game) and when he came back in he was a different cat.

I've written out the reality of this weekends game a couple of times now. But there is no point... No one would believe how bad they were and how bad the culture of the team is...

Anyway we have the JV game tomorrow and I'm ready to pull our kids off the field at a moments notice.

Guys, as an official, I have to jump in here. I am not going to say that all officials are perfect, but you are ascribing behavior here that I don't think is accurate. On the college field, we work with seven officials. That gives us roughly three players each to watch, which means that there are between seven and fourteen players at any given time we don't see.

On a high school varsity field, we work with five. That makes the ratio players to officials 4.5 to one. One a JV field we work with four, which takes the ratio from a shade over 5 to 1. Junior High games have three, which takes us to 7 players for every offical. Everytime I shift to a different key, there is another interaction not being watched. We do what we can, but we can't see every interaction.

I am not excusing bad officiating, as I have seen my share. That being said, we need to be realistic about what is possible and what isn't. I can't hear most of what is said between players, especially up close. I can't see what happens under piles. Above all, I can't flag results, only actions. If I don't see the action, I can't pushing the actor. Regardless, the flag won't heal the injuries. It just punishes the bad actor that got the other kid injured.

K, with all due respect, on the rules board you were saying that the rule protecting players not participating in the play was wrong and risked injury to the player, yet the cheap shots and late hits described through this thread are exactly the things the rule is designed to prevent.

There are some refs that suck, there are some that try but aren't that good, I understand that. But before you try to lay the blame entirely at their feet, you need to understand that the kids on the field are doing those actions because they are taught either at home or by the coaches and condoned or encouraged in both places.

I can't fix stupid, I can only flag the action and punish the perpetrator.

While I respect your opinion, I disagree. The player needs to either be in proximity of the play or moving to get there, regardless of offensive or defensive position. Blowing up a player not involved in the play isn't a part of the game. I think the majority of players and coaches realize that. With the games I have called this year, we have only had that particular foul in about half of them. Out of the games where we had the personal, only one game had multiple occurances and both teams were coached that way.

If a player isn't participating in the play, they shouldn't be a target.

Nope. Not at all. Drilling the QB is typically fine with the exception of the helmet-to-helmet shot, which was added/amplified in our rules this year. The peal back on a trailing player busting his butt to make a play is fine. The ones I have flagged are the player jogging 20 yards behind the play, not moving to participate and getting earholed. I love a good legal, blindside blowup as much as the next former player, and I will give a kid that executes one a "good job." But when the player is clearly out and a guy lines him up and takes the cheap shot, I am happy to rag it. It doesn't happen often, but those blocks have the potential to derail the game if we don't get them. My crews and crew chiefs at both levels want us to talk kids out of the fouls when we can. Flags interupt the flow of the game, kill momentum and insert the officials into the storyline. I have no problem making a big call at a key moment, I just want it to be my only option.

Make sense?

You keep repeating yourself like I'm saying that it should be legal to earhole someone who is standing around 50 yards down field.

My problem with the rule is with refs who magically think that linemen know that the ball has been thrown or that the back is down field. I've seen it called and I've seen it immediately injure a kid probably for the rest of his life. 100% the fault of the rule and the ref who was enforcing it.



They were coached not to abandon blocks early? Or they were coached to earhole random people not in the play? From what you're saying in this post it seems the former but in another post it seems the latter. If you're calling the penalty in every other game I'd worry that you're doing the former which from my perspective leads directly to injuries.



That statement right there out of context is 100% bunk. =)

That said I understand what you're saying and as long as you're not magically expecting linemen to know when the ball is gone and you're not "quick" on that call it is fine. When refs start making kids worry about "oh am I blocking this guy to long? maybe I should let him go now" is when kids get hurt. I've seen it happen. Oddly enough I've seen it happen recently in the same game that they had the slowest whistle for forward progress I've ever seen...

K, I think we are in violent agreement on the following points:

1. Earholing a player 20+ yards behind the play is general wrong
2. Players within the proximity of the play with continuing action aren't normally doing anything wrong
3. Players who aren't doing anything wrong shouldn't be flagged

Where we will (and most likely will always) disagree:
1. I believe football players have a feel for the game and know when to move on (generally)
2. You believe that the ability above is fictional and ranks up there with belief in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus (see multiple references to magic)
3. I believe that it is more important for officials to use their voice than their whistle, and when done properly, is effective
4. You believe that there should be a whistle on every play and that players should have a Pavlovian response to it.
(sorry about the tone and obvious slant, but I couldn't help myself)

Sounds like all is right in the world. To be fair, TOG and I have had this arguement on many occasions and he comes down on exactly the same side that you and 95% of the coaches I have met do. This is simply the constant tension that exists in the game. To be honest, if we agreed, then there would be nothing else to debate. I rather enjoy it. I am here to provide an official's opinion on the rules in the rules section, but every once in awhile, I escape my enclosure. I enjoy the foray into the main board because it helps me work better with the coaches I see on Friday and Saturday.

Wow. Sorry to say, but based on your description, the official in question needs to read the book a little more closely. That's a foul regardless of the rules you are playing under.

Coach, I understand what you are doing, and I agree with your societal analysis. . You have the right to coach your kids the way you wish. You just need to understand that what you are coaching isn't in the book and can be in violation of the rules. As long as you are willing to accept that, then you are fine. It means that you will have a higher probability for flags on action after the play is over.

You need to understand that while you may believe that a whistle should be blown every play, that it isn't a requirement to do so, that it isn't supported by the rules, and it isn't going to happen. You can see it any way that you wish, but you need to understand that rules, at least for those working HS in Texas and Mass and at the collegiate level, do not say that.