PIT TOUCH and FLAG FOOTBALL in WINNIPEG MANITOBA - FOOTBALL!

3779 Posts

As those of you who follow us on Twitter now know, on Tuesday three separate incidents of referee abuse occurred resulting in three separate player suspensions. These incidents occurred on three different fields with three different referee crews. Including these three suspensions, and some previous to this, we have now suspended more players this summer than in any other season on record and we are just five weeks into the season.

A note to players that referee abuse will not be tolerated and we will be increasing our penalties for abuse to help curb the problems during games. We must all remember that the PIT refs are the most highly trained referees in our sport, and beyond the knowledge, experience, and game management that they bring, without them we do not get to play the game we enjoy so much.

Despite the huge growth in the league's popularity the number of suspensions relative to players is considerably high. The PIT was created to provide the best game day experience, and if that experience means contracting teams to get rid of the "bad eggs" we would happily do that to ensure the rest of our paying customers go home from their games happy.

And please keep in mind that even NFL referee's make mistakes (and there is 10 of them...with the benefit of instant replay)! Check out the link here for one of the more memorable ones: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-thanksgiving/09000d5d8242a1a1/Thanksgiving-Memories-The-coin-flip-flub

59 Posts

Good message. There is no need for flipping out on referees, period. They miss some calls, but so would you in their shoes, guaranteed.

116 Posts

I got my first ever objectional penalty in my life last night.............. swearing at myself for throwing the worst pass in the history of this world. I absolutley deserved the penalty too, take your penalties and just play the game. The refs aren't out to get us......just doing there job. Sometimes people have a bit of an animated intial response to a flag being thrown or to what they feel is an incorrect whistle (myself included), just because of our competitive nature....... but beyond that we just need to let it go, nothing is going to change by having a tantrum on the field.

116 Posts

I was playing and one of our receivers played to the whistle. The defenders started exclaiming to the ref that the ref missed the tag and so forth. They weren't being overtly rude, but it was going to go there swiftly, I could tell. Anyway, the ref let them say a couple of things and then said, "Are you sure you want to keep arguing? It will mean you'll be ejected, so you decide," or some such comment.

I thought this was fantastic, and (to my knowledge) the defenders didn't say another word to that ref. Really classy, respectful way to respond to people who are "caught up in the game," but still behaving badly.