Most players and fans would never consider being a referee - why now take the abuse that they had so liberally given for so long? Now you get to find out why some nutcase would choose to pick up a whistle and stand between 22 people who may not like him very much, and just what he thinks about you, too.
Prima Donnas!
Every once in a while I've referred to the football team that the unaffiliated league I'm in rents space from. Because they're division 1A, they have this sense of entitlement, no matter how much they suck. This time, they've moved all the soccer goals to outside of the building (have I mentioned that we're now below freezing every-other-day?), because they've tripped over them.
Now, on the surface of that, it sounds reasonable. But let's give you a few more details: the goals are stored flat, against a wall seven yards from the pointy-ball sideline, behind a tarp that hangs from the ceiling. If they're tripping over this, then no wonder they almost lost to a division 2 team.
The games were... OK. Mostly the same for what the league has been of, at least of late. I had one game where I had marked two players for getting a Persistent Infringement card on their next foul, both of which never game; one of them was a woman who had a mouth on her, and I knew that if I popped her for PI, she would likely say something nasty that would earn her either a second yellow, or a direct trip to my back pocket. She had come in late twice in a few minutes and came inches away from a dissent card - somehow I channeled Morton Downey Jr. and told her to "Zip it" which apparently worked.
Things will be slowing down here, now that I'm only reffing two nights a week (and let's be honest - that I bought an iPod Shuffle to help me keep my mind off the boredom as I run in the gym isn't something that's terribly interesting, is it?), but that happens every winter.
Now, on the surface of that, it sounds reasonable. But let's give you a few more details: the goals are stored flat, against a wall seven yards from the pointy-ball sideline, behind a tarp that hangs from the ceiling. If they're tripping over this, then no wonder they almost lost to a division 2 team.
The games were... OK. Mostly the same for what the league has been of, at least of late. I had one game where I had marked two players for getting a Persistent Infringement card on their next foul, both of which never game; one of them was a woman who had a mouth on her, and I knew that if I popped her for PI, she would likely say something nasty that would earn her either a second yellow, or a direct trip to my back pocket. She had come in late twice in a few minutes and came inches away from a dissent card - somehow I channeled Morton Downey Jr. and told her to "Zip it" which apparently worked.
Things will be slowing down here, now that I'm only reffing two nights a week (and let's be honest - that I bought an iPod Shuffle to help me keep my mind off the boredom as I run in the gym isn't something that's terribly interesting, is it?), but that happens every winter.