Good discussion but ease up a bit on Steiner. When he says:
"i'm enforcing those rules who matters, on the field there and then"
I don't for a second think he means the safety rules or eliminations. I can understand being flexible in some of the grey areas. One good example of this is players coming out of the box at the end of the game. Should we let them come out of the box? No. However, given the limited number of refs available, it's usually not possible to have one ref assigned to each box to watch for players coming out of the box, making it much more difficult to monitor.
In NJ, when we had extra refs during semi-finals and finals, we stationed a ref in each box - just to keep the players under control during and after the games. The fact that we had to do this is, to me, just plain sad. I understand this is a passionate, adrenaline-based sport, but you should still be able to control your gross motor functions. Yell, scream, bitch, jump up and down as much as you like but stay in the d*mn box. If you have such poor impulse control (no pun intended), do we really want you running around with a loaded marker?
For those who think leaving the deadbox isn't a grey area - at what point do you assess the penalty? If the player puts one foot outside the box? Both feet? Gets more than five feet from the box? What if the players just standing there waiting for the "game over" signal? Do you warn the player once/twice/three times a lady (sorry, had a Lionel Ritchie flashbacks there
) before penalizing them? Now make all these decisions within five seconds while still keeping track of what's happening on the field. If you ask the Rules committee (you know - the guys who write the rules) you'll get three different answers to the question, followed by "use your best judgement", which is what we do. It's taken four events just to get the language rule worked out, for Robbo's sake
To be clear - This is NOT an excuse for not enforcing the rule. Just an example of the way the rules can be interpreted and the need to improve these areas.
In the specific example of the ND/TT game - I would have asked for the ejection if it was my field, but it wasn't. I was only on the NPPL field for semis and finals, so it wasn't my call.
Are we making progress on our reffing? Hell yes.
Are we perfect yet? Hell no
I would like to hear what you think should be done for enforcing ejections/suspensions/etc. If a players is suspended for three games in the NPPL, should that suspension be honored by the Mil? And if the player sits the three games during a Mil event, who's going to confirm this to the NPPL?
PS - For those who don't know, I am a NPPL ref and worked the Evil and NPPL fields in NJ. Feel free to tell me how bad I suck at reffing. Players do it all the time - usually after I pull them for that hit they tried to slide off
and I still don't give sh*t when they say it.
PPS - Steiner - Hope to see you and the rest of the guys in Miami!
