I had an interesting experience at breakfast recently that made me think about football officiating. I normally sit in the same place at the table for meals. I don’t think about it. That’s just where I sit. My coffee goes in front of me, I eat my breakfast, and when I’m finished, I go on with my day.
My daughter and her family were visiting from Minnesota, and that morning someone was sitting in “my spot.” No big deal. I simply sat at the other end of the table and ate breakfast there.
After breakfast, I couldn’t find my coffee cup.
I looked in the kitchen. I looked at my normal place at the table. I checked the sink and the dishwasher. I looked in my office. I even looked in the bedroom, thinking perhaps I had carried it there without remembering. I searched all over for that coffee cup.
Eventually it dawned on me that there was one place I hadn’t looked: the other end of the table.
There was my coffee cup, about six feet away from where I normally sit.
What struck me afterward was that I hadn’t simply forgotten where I put the cup. My brain didn’t even consider the other end of the table as a place to look. I had been searching for my coffee cup according to a familiar pattern. Coffee cups belong at my normal place at the table. They might be in the kitchen, the sink, or the dishwasher. They might even have wandered into another room. But the opposite end of the table wasn’t part of the narrative my brain had constructed.
Several concepts in cognitive psychology help explain what happened, including attentional set, schema-driven perception, and inattentional blindness. We don’t process everything our eyes can see with equal attention. Our brains use experience and expectations to decide what deserves our attention. Most of the time, that’s incredibly useful. Imagine having to consciously evaluate every object in your field of vision every moment of the day. Instead, our brains become very good at recognizing familiar patterns and directing our attention toward what normally matters.
Football officials do the same thing.
After we’ve officiated hundreds or thousands of plays, we develop expectations about what a football play is supposed to look like. We recognize formations and familiar patterns of movement. We see the linemen and quarterback drop back and immediately recognize pass. We notice the subtle body movements of the linemen and running back that suggest a draw play. We read keys, recognize patterns, and begin anticipating where the play is headed and what may happen next. That experienced expectation is one of the things that makes us better officials. An experienced official doesn’t have to process every movement on the field from scratch. Experience lets us recognize familiar patterns quickly, so we can devote more attention to the things that don’t fit the pattern.
But that experience hides a danger. Sometimes we become so accustomed to seeing what normally happens that we aren’t prepared to see what actually happens.
In other words, something happens that doesn’t fit the narrative.
This problem can occur with fouls we don’t see very often. Holding, false starts, offsides, and pass interference are familiar. We have seen them repeatedly, and our brains recognize those patterns quickly. But what about a block below the waist (especially by the defensive player)? A chop block? A horse-collar tackle? These fouls occur much less frequently. When one suddenly happens in front of us, there can be a brief moment when our brain has trouble processing what our eyes just saw. It wasn’t what we were expecting. It didn’t fit the narrative of the play.
That doesn’t mean we should try to eliminate routines from our officiating. Quite the opposite. Good officiating depends upon routines. Our mechanics, keys, pre-snap responsibilities, and positioning exist precisely because twenty-two players can create more information than any one official could possibly process. Our mechanics tell us where to look and what we’re responsible for seeing.
The danger comes when our routines become assumptions.
There’s an important difference between “This is where I am supposed to look” and “This is what I expect to see.” The first is disciplined officiating. The second can become a blind spot.
If I’m responsible for the opposite tackle as the referee, I need to actually see the opposite tackle. I can’t simply glance in his direction, assume he’s doing what tackles normally do, and move on to another matchup. A wing can’t simply glance toward the outside tackle while mentally waiting for the other linemen to tell him where the play is going. We must remain mentally engaged with our keys long enough to process what those players are doing. In other words, we can’t abandon our initial key too quickly.
That becomes even more important when a play starts appearing routine. Ironically, those may be the moments when we’re most vulnerable. Our brains love shortcuts. Once we’ve decided, “Nothing unusual is happening here,” our attention naturally moves to the next thing. That’s efficient, but efficiency isn’t always good officiating.
There is also an important difference between expecting to see what normally happens and anticipating what might happen based on the clues a play gives us. Good officials learn to recognize situations that should put them on high alert.
When an offensive lineman does not have a defender lined up directly in front of him, we should recognize the potential for a chop block. He may go high or low on an adjacent defender who is also being blocked by a teammate.
When a defender is chasing a ball-carrier from behind, the possibility of a horse-collar tackle should immediately enter our awareness. The defender may become desperate to make the tackle and grab the runner high around the shoulder-pad area.
When an offense runs the option, the referee should know before the play develops that the quarterback may pitch the ball at the last moment and become vulnerable to an illegal hit. That should remind the referee to stay with the quarterback a little longer rather than immediately following the pitch.
When a grounded loose ball is near a sideline, the wing should anticipate uncommon actions that can suddenly become critical to the ruling. A player may illegally bat the ball to keep it inbounds, or a player straddling the sideline may touch the loose ball, causing it to become dead by rule.
We aren’t looking to find a foul in any of these situations, and we certainly shouldn’t anticipate a foul so strongly that we convince ourselves one occurred. Instead, we use our knowledge of football to anticipate possibilities so that if something unusual does happen, our eyes and brain are ready to process it.
Sometimes the thing we need to see is sitting right in front of us.
There is no way to anticipate every strange thing that can happen during a football game. But during our pregame discussion and as we go through our presnap routine, it is helpful to ask ourselves, “What could happen here that I need to be ready to see?” That simple question can move our brains beyond the expected and prepare us for the unusual. We aren’t predicting what will happen or looking for something that isn’t there. We are simply reminding ourselves that the next play may not follow the familiar script.
Two examples of “what could happen here?”
It’s near the end of a half, and the offense has no timeouts. “What could happen here?” Passes and runs go toward the sideline, and we need to properly rule on forward progress; the quarterback may spike the ball, players may rush to get set, or the offense may commit an illegal snap or false start foul in its haste. Clock status becomes part of what officials need to anticipate.
A punt receiver gives a fair-catch signal. “What could happen here?” The ball could be muffed, another R player could catch it, K could interfere with the opportunity to make the catch, or the receiver could catch it and then attempt to advance. Several unusual rulings can emerge from what initially looks like a routine punt.
Experience should help us recognize patterns, but it shouldn’t limit what we’re capable of seeing.
That morning, I searched all over the house for a coffee cup that was sitting six feet away from me. My problem wasn’t that the cup was hidden. My problem was that I was looking only in the places where my experience told me the cup ought to be.
On the football field, we can’t afford to do the same thing.
Follow your routine. Trust your mechanics. Watch your keys. But don’t let yourself relax; try to mentally prepare (presnap or while a play unfolds) for unusual events that could take us by surprise.
Quiz
Read the quiz stem and then choose the best answer. (Choose all that apply.)
2/10 from the A-40. The ball slips out of A66’s hands at the snap and rolls along the ground. A70 picks it up at the A-38 and is downed at the B-45.
- Illegal snap, 2/15 from the A-35
- Illegal touching, 3/15 from the A-35
- Legal play, 1/10 from the B-45
Review Rules 2-33-1c, 2-40, 7-2-4, 7-4-1, 7-4-2a