Bobref

I just tell younger officials to look at the NFL and D-1 officials. They set the expectations of coaches and administrators. Disappoint those expectations at your own risk.

As long as conferences are based primarily on scheduling convenience and geographic proximity, rather than competitive reasons, I think conferences in general - and especially 10 school conferences — are bad for football. The inability to schedule out of conference games that might be more competitive detracts from the quality of football generally, a cause that I thought you were championing.

Today we celebrate the birth of The One — He who has shown us The Way — who provides the template for our lives. The One to whom we can turn for words of comfort or inspiration. The One to whom so many owe so much. Please, keep on doing what you do. Happy Birthday, Jimmy Buffett!!! Merry Buffett Day to all my GID friends!

We are seeing increased prevalence among our younger officials of aspects of appearance that were once taboo, e.g., facial hair, visible tattoos, etc. Here’s an interesting take on it from Referee Magazine. Would love to hear some coaches and administrators weigh in on this. After all, you are our clients/customers. https://www.referee.com/does-appearance-still-matter/

In the original Seinfeld Festivus episode, the only food seen being served for dinner was a platter of meatloaf on a pile of lettuce.

Friends, are you among the many who are turned off by the rank commercialization of Christmas? Don’t really understand what Hanukah is all about? Can’t really get behind Kwanza? Well, don’t despair. You can still join in the holiday spirit … by celebrating Festivus, for the rest of us! Yes, it’s the Eve of Festivus. Each year at this time we recall the story of Festivus. How Festivus has been around for a long time, but burst into public consciousness during the 1997 episode of Seinfeld “The Strike.” There, Frank Costanza (George’s father) explained the origin of Festivus, as depicted in the video clip at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbfMmCf5-ds I’m so excited to pull the Festivus Pole out of the crawl space and shine it up. Mine is aircraft grade aluminum, with a very high strength to weight ratio. And you don’t have to bother with any decorations on the Festivus pole, as tinsel is distracting. Then, tomorrow, we celebrate with the traditional Festivus dinner, commencing with the Airing of Grievances, where we all berate those who have disappointed us in the past year. I’ve got a lot of problems with you people! so feel free to pile on @DT, @Muda69, @DanteEstonia, @gonzoron, or whomever. Then we move on to my favorite part: the Feats of Strength! Festivus is not ended until someone bests the master of the house in a Feat of Strength! So, I declare Festivus will continue until someone manages to pin @Coach Nowlin. Let’s get ready to rumble! Finally, let me close with a heartfelt plea that I hope reaches you at this special time of year when we must consider those less fortunate. I do hope you will find it in your hearts this year to make a donation to the Human Fund in honor of Festivus. After all, it’s money … for people. Alternatively, you could become a GID booster! May you all have the Festivus you deserve. That will truly be a Festivus Miracle! Happy Festivus!

The reason the Clintons stayed married was my principal ground for refusing to vote for Hillary. Anyone who would allow herself to be publicly humiliated repeatedly like that is so lacking in self respect ... the only explanation is that she stayed with him for purely political reasons. If she’s willing to do that, what else would she be willing to do in the name of political expediency?

Again, that’s a “talk-to,” not a foul. Don’t go looking for trouble.

I’ve heard it called the “phone booth offense,” because the formation is so tight you could line up in a phone booth ... if anyone on here remembers what that is.

That’s not a call you want to nitpick. Proper way to handle it when they push the limit is for the wing official to communicate with the coach and tell him they need to move up a bit.

An offensive player is on the line of scrimmage when his foot or head penetrates the plane drawn through the waistline of the snapper. These players are not in “no man’s land.” They are on the line of scrimmage.

You mean as clear as “bubbling crude.”

Noblesville better get ready for “3 yards and a cloud of dust.”

Many of you may have heard his story before ... but it certainly bears repeating. If you’re not inspired by it, you should probably check to see if you have a pulse. 2020 NCAA Inspiration Award: Rocky Bleier Former Notre Dame standout rebounded from war wounds to thrive in NFL December 17, 2019 2:00pmMeghan Durham Just as Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rocky Bleier was about to wrap up his rookie season in 1968, a teammate called him over to the table the team reserved for fan mail. The former Notre Dame standout was surprised. He wasn’t a high NFL draft pick or a well-known player and, in a few months with the team, had yet to receive any letters of support. When he opened the envelope, though, he realized that was still the case: In his hand was a notification that he had been drafted by the U.S. Army, which was immersed in the Vietnam War. He was due to report the next day. In combat the next year, he suffered grisly injuries that would reshape his life, but, improbably, not nudge him off course. The football player turned soldier turned injured veteran fought his way back to a professional football career that spanned more than a decade. In turn, he has used that story to inspire countless others not to yield in the most difficult circumstances, and he has donated time and energy to helping veterans like him reacclimate to the jarringly different lives they faced when they returned home. “One percent serve our country. One percent. So there’s 99% of us who don’t know or understand what the military service is all about,” Bleier says. “I felt a certain responsibility, being able to give back, and be an awareness mouthpiece of issues that now become very predominant — especially for the Vietnam veteran, but now all veterans. Bleier, a running back, helped lead the Irish to a national championship in 1966 and was named team captain as a senior. He missed the last game of his senior season with a torn ligament, rendering a professional football career uncertain. But when he and his friends went to dinner the following February and were busy making plans for spring break, they heard a local newscaster announce the college players in the area who had been selected in the third day of the NFL Draft: Bleier was shocked to learn he had been selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 16th round. After graduating in 1968 with a degree in business management, Bleier attended training camp with the Steelers and earned a spot on the roster, but his stint with Pittsburgh was cut short when that letter from the Army arrived in the mail. With little time to process how his life had changed so suddenly, Bleier told the team he needed to leave and reported for duty. He was deployed to Vietnam in April 1969 after only eight weeks of basic training and another eight weeks of advanced infantry training. A few months later, Bleier was shot in the left thigh when his unit came under machine-gun fire. Soon after, his right foot and leg were badly injured by a grenade blast. After the harrowing experience, he was pulled from the battlefield and evacuated to Tokyo, where he spent three weeks in the hospital. Doctors removed 100 shards of shrapnel from his leg and foot and told him he would be fortunate if he could ever walk without a limp. In fact, they nearly amputated his leg to stave off a staph infection. Bleier was transferred to an army hospital in Kansas, where he would undergo several excruciating surgeries to detangle ligaments in his leg from the scar tissue that had formed in the injuries’ wake. In early 1970, having lost 30 pounds after the injuries, he began training every day to get back in shape. He would run as far as he could in the morning — a mere mile, on the best of days, at the beginning — lift weights in the afternoon and then run sprints after dinner. In June, Bleier, who received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his heroism in battle, finally was cleared medically and discharged. Despite the injuries and the time away, the Steelers invited him back to training camp. That time in camp took a toll: Two-a-day practices and endless drills that required him to push off on his injured foot sent him home each day with blood in his socks. At the end of the camp, the Steelers cut Bleier, but encouraged him to get healthy and return the next year. On the drive home, Bleier wept. The following morning, Steelers executive Dan Rooney called to inform Bleier that the team would place him on the injured reserve list, enabling him to earn a salary, and that the team would pay for additional operations that year to further loosen the scar tissue and remove shrapnel in his foot. In 1971, he returned to camp and made the roster. He played on special teams, but he never carried the ball during the regular season. The next year, he earned one coveted carry. The year after that, only three. Before the next season, Bleier considered walking away from football. The thought of another grueling training camp where he would be forced to compete with young, healthy draft picks for a roster spot seemed daunting. At a teammate’s behest, though, Bleier returned and made the team — as the fifth running back. That season, several Steelers on the depth chart in front of him succumbed to injuries, finally giving Bleier a chance to contribute. He didn’t waste it and would go on to be a key piece of Steelers teams that would win four Super Bowls before his retirement in 1980. He has spent the intervening years relaying his journey from a grave injury in Vietnam to the pinnacle of the nation’s most popular sport by working as a professional speaker and donating time to organizations that support veterans who have faced comparable challenges. While he was standing in the tunnel before his first Super Bowl, about to be introduced on national television as a starting running back in the year’s biggest game, Bleier reflected on all he had done to earn that moment. “I thought, ‘Wow, you’re standing in a place where hundreds of ballplayers stood before you. Big names of championship games stood in this tunnel and were introduced as a participant in a Super Bowl team,’” he says. “‘And you’re now one of them. You’re part of that.’” Rocky Bleier will be honored with a 2020 NCAA Inspiration Award on Wednesday, Jan. 22, at the NCAA Honors Celebration in Anaheim, California. The award is presented to a coach or administrator currently associated with intercollegiate athletics, or to a current or former varsity letter winner at an NCAA institution. It is reserved for people who used perseverance, dedication and determination to overcome a life-altering situation and, most importantly, are role models giving hope and inspiration to others. http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/2020-ncaa-inspiration-award-rocky-bleier

Any decent third year law student could blow this case out of the water without breathing hard. This tempest is, unfortunately, in a teapot of the Patriots’ own making. It’s more about the other owners thinking the Pats got off too lightly for previous alleged transgressions. That, plus the fact that they’ve slapped around the rest of the league for almost 20 yrs. Payback’s a b*tch.

Perhaps not. But this is how you determine if you have real leaders.

I would hope the returning team leadership could handle this in-house. This is what team captains are for — keeping the players together, as a “team.” A chance to demonstrate leadership by the captains including this kid as an example to the rest of the team how to behave. At the same time, this kid also needs to be told that if he wants to be a part of the team, there are standards he needs to meet. Attendance at off season workouts is one of them.

I apologize for not being clear. It’s more of a semantic issue than anything else. Historically, the term “redshirt” was applied to a student athlete designated by his school to sit out an entire year, to take advantage of the NCAA eligibility rule that allowed players 5 years to use up their 4 seasons of eligibility. That rule was modified before the 2018 season to provide that a player who plays in 4 or fewer games during the year does not have that year count toward his eligibility. As I understand it, at Notre Dame this rule change has been implemented with two provisos that are not commonly used at other schools: First, ND does not designate a player at the beginning of the season as a “redshirt,” and withhold him from all competition during that season. Rather, as Coach-Ref Kaiser pointed out, they wait until after the 4th game of the season to make that determination, unless medical issues are involved. Second, ND does not automatically allow a player their last season of eligibility after that have completed their bachelor’s degree. Rather, they must petition the University to be allowed to participate in that 5th year, as a graduate student, and permission is granted on a case by case basis. To summarize, ND does not follow the “traditional” redshirt practice, but they have implemented the new NCAA rule change as of 2018, in their own fashion.

Notre Dame does not “redshirt” players, other than for medical reasons.

I said “some.”

Next year: Clemson @ Notre Dame, Nov. 7. We could use some nice, cold South Bend weather that Saturday.

The example that was given to me was that of the ESPN Top 100, Notre Dame would not even bother talking to half of them.

So, unless you win the national championship, you don’t belong? Interesting. Certainly there are schools that bend or break the rules, although I wouldn’t necessarily put those you’ve named in that category. But if what you’re trying to say is that ND will never be in that class unless they compromise their principles, I just have 2 observations: 1. Although accepting anyone with a pulse as long as they run a 4.4 or squat 600# makes it easier to get to that level, it’s not an absolute prerequisite. 2. But if that’s what it takes, too bad. Principles are more important than championships.

I didn’t say I would. Gets like this will help. https://247sports.com/college/notre-dame/Article/Five-star-RB-Chris-Tyree-says-hes-100-percent-signing-with-Notre-Dame-140389858/

Some would advocate just accepting this as the “new normal.”