When playing an unnamed lower classification school to open our season, the coach approached me at half field and asked me "So, how many do you want to play with today?". Obviously he was a football coach making extra money. That happens.
I had another coach recently try to sub on an offsides call.
And to a lesser extent of ignorance, another coach tried to sub on our throw in.
Your perfect world/perfect coach scenario does not hold water. If all the coaches aren't qualified to know the rules, then independent supervisors should evaluate the officials. If you have a rural region with a bunch of football coaches leading the teams, how would that evaluation work? They don't care, much less know, if he is doing a good job. What if they all gave him five stars on his evaluation form, he gets to ref the state championship game based on referral, and subsequently sucks? Terrible idea.
Another point that I and the other coaches reading this post can chuckle to ourselves about is your mentioning of the rules meeting. Have you ever been to one? I have and can tell you really, really don't know what you're talking about. Do you think they get out the rules guide and just read it cover to cover for us? AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH HAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAA!!! Oh, thank the good Lord for a sense of humor.
