Get Off The Tracks When The Ref's Coming Through – Arkansas State Guy Steamrolled By Side Judge As South Alabama Returns Kickoff 100 Yards for a Touchdown
This must be a football referee's dream. It should be. Every time these guys go to work, they spend their whole shift being motherfucked up and down by every asshole coach on the sideline. When you throw on the stripes, you signal to the world that societal norms no longer apply to you. That you are free to be called any name in the book, and you just have to sit there and take it. People will accuse you of heinous, illegal things like fixing the game, as if there's anything you want more in the world than to fly under the radar and make it home without incident. Your only real defense is to throw a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, which overall will only make the environment more hostile for you. It might even get your government name on the fans' radar, which is the last thing any referee wants. As a ref, you can hardly even talk back to a player. If you do, and someone catches it on camera, then you're the asshole.
That last paragraph was me attempting to see things from a ref's perspective. Obviously players, coaches, and fans would see things differently. Especially when there are incessent flags being thrown, and none of them are going in your favor. But as a ref, in a sport where you're witnessing violence up close and personal on every play... when there's foul language being hurled at you from all directions... it would be damn near impossible not to fantasize about getting a lick in of your own every now and then. Especially considering all the times refs have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and found themselves on the wrong end of a "JACKED UP!!!" highlight. Any referee who's been in the business long enough to work FBS football games has undoubtedly taken a shot or two.
But make no mistake, there are plenty of referees out there capable of delivering licks themselves. There are plenty of jacked officials in the game of football. Which makes sense. If I were a football ref, I'd want to be jacked too. It's one of the few things you can do as a ref to gain the respect of football guys. If there's one thing football guys can appreciate other than football, it's Popeye-sized biceps spilling out of an undersized shirt.
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If you give one of those guys an opportunity, he will get his lick back. So when you're a coach on the sideline (or a fan, this guy must be a fan) and the opposing team is in the midst of returning your kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown… when #7 is barreling down the sideline… you have to know there's a referee in his wake. In that moment, it's not your sideline. It's the ref's. The ref has the right of way, and he's not looking both ways.
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That guy is lucky that the referee was nice. If it were later in the game, and he'd been hearing it from the Arkansas State sideline all night, he might not have held up as much as he did. He might have just lowered the shoulder.
This is the best angle right here. I assume he's watching the play unfold on the jumbotron, but apparently there's a delay, because he could not have been less prepared for that collision. This is the least suspecting man in the world.
P.S. It's a shame the cameraman who caught that end-zone angle didn't zoom out just a little on the return, but we can still see a bit of the aftermath.
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P.P.S. By the way, what a game that was between Arkansas State and Georgia Southern last night. Look at this scoreboard. Love to see a total go over 100 points.