What's your rush?
Keeping with the theme of s l o w i n g d o w n, let's look at your penalty flag.
Don't be in a hurry to toss it.
You have the luxury of making sure of what you just saw — and making sure it was a foul — before you reach for and toss the flag. In basketball you have to call a foul (almost) immediately when it happens. Football allows you some extra processing time, so don't be afraid to use it.
Keep in mind that when you throw a flag, you don't have to hit the spot of the foul, only the yard line that goes through the spot of the foul. If you're working a wing position, you shouldn't be tossing your flag much farther than the top of the numbers. You certainly don't need to be hurling your laundry past the inbounds marks. Doing so only increases the chances that you'll nail a player in the process.
That reminds me of a game I worked last year: We had a sub who worked a reserve game, and he had this flag that had ... I'm not kidding here ... what looked like a half pound weight in it. I swear he could've launched that thing 50 yards.
Continued...
Please sign in to read the rest of this article:
