The Cleveland Football Officials Association
The Goalpost
The Official’s Newsletter
Volume 23, Number 3March, 2017 Jim Lanese, Editor
COFA Officers, 2016
President: Jim Demetriu Jr
Vice-President: Paul Manfredi
Secretary: Tony Bondra
Executive Chm: Paul Byrne
Executive: Anthony Huspaska
Executive: Tom Muellauer
Executive: Brian Crummie
Executive: Chuck Sroka
Rules Interpreter: Jim Lanese
Mechanics: Mike Dame
The CFOA was well represented in the 2016 championships Bobby Bolin, John Mandula, Mike Dame, Gartrell Bentley, and Rocky Neal worked the Div. III Final game.
Rule Changes, 2017
Check the nfhs.org news release for more detail and other changes. Await interpretations to follow. Most significantly, Rule 2-32-16 defines a defenseless player by adding some specific examples:
A player in the act of or just after throwing a pass; a receiver attempting to catch a pass who has not had time to clearly become a runner; a runner already in the grasp of a tackler and whose forward progress has been stopped; a kickoff or punt returner attempting to catch or recover a kick, or one who has completed a catch or recovery and has not had time to protect himself or has not clearly become a ball carrier; a player obviously out of the play or not in the immediate vicinity of the runner; and a player who received a blindside block with forceful contact not initiated with open hands.
Also, The definition of a blindside block established by the committee is “a block against an opponent other than the runner, who does not see the blocker approaching,” and now results in a 15-yard penalty.
CLEVELAND FOOTBALL OFFICIALS HALL OF FAME
2016 BANQUET &BUSINESS MEETING REPORT
by Jerry Sulecki
Continuing a tradition which began in 1936, the annual banquet and business meeting was held this year at Tizzano’s Party Center in Euclid on November 3rd. This was the 80th consecutive time this event was conducted.
Not surprisingly - though the banquet is free to members with the payment of their dues - once again there appeared to be many half-filled and even completely empty tables.
This is not a unique occurrence as attendance has been declining for years at most other annual association banquets across the state. The current official has many more distractions than officials of the past and attendance at meetings and banquets is not high on his or her list.
Nonetheless, the officials in attendance, both active and retired, seemed to really enjoy themselves at the complimentary bar and the deliciously catered family-style meal.
Honored as the 2016 Men-Of-The-Year and presented with clever keepsake caricatures of their officiating days were Mike De John and Jim Schartman. Mike was presented by Tom O’Donnell and Jim by Bob Morris. Both honors were very well deserved.
2016 inductees into the CFOA Hall-Of-Fame are Tim O’Malley and sadly posthumously, Dan McLeod. Jerry Sulecki celebrated Tim and his career and Tom Sieworek presented Dan. Both men had family in attendance and are absolutely worthy of the highest honor that can be bestowed by the CFOA.
Jim Demetriu, Jr. was elected President and presented outgoing president -and now chairman of the Executive Board, Paul Byrne - with the customary carved gavel plaque symbolic of his tenure. Paul Manfredi was elected VP and the Executive Board will consist of Chuck Sroka, Brian Crummie, Anthony Huspaska, and Tom Muellauer. Tony Bondra will continue as the Secretary for the 17th consecutive year.
There were 12 current CFOA Hall OF Fame members in attendance:Don Brown Frank Conge Howard Eckert Art Guhde Chuck Hill John Jones Monty Mlakar Sam Palumbo Allan Pintner Bill Reppa Don Schirmer Jerry Sulecki Gene Wodzisz.
Outgoing President Paul Byrne honored and identified them by asking them to stand and be recognized. However, due to their advanced ages, it was humorously suggested that they be honored in the future by remaining seated and having everyone else stand up.
Chuck Hill was recognized for suggesting that the CFOA history archives going back to 1932 be housed at the downtown Cleveland Main Library in the sports department. Jim Lanese was likewise commended for following up on this idea and being instrumental in getting the records digitized and online - hopefully in perpetuity. The plaque commemorating the CFOA Hall-Of-Famers is likewise stored there - ‘borrowed’ for the banquet - and then returned for continuous public display. Very, very impressive.
The level of scrutiny with an assist from technology is complicating our game; Beware of all the claims
By Jim Lanese
The 2017 NASO Sports Officiating Summit is devoted to the theme, ”Driven by Data: Analytics, Demographics, and Sports Officials”. It promises many insights gained from ‘big data’ analytics and the use of video technology. The February, 2017 edition of Referee Magazine posted an article by Dr. Peter Sacco addressing the issues associated with increased scrutiny due to technology and media’s interpretation. He writes from an official’s perspective and offers advice about dealing with situations arising from technology-base conclusions. Advantages and disadvantages of off-field developments connected to the game have some valid and as many invalid impacts. My career as an educator and researcher prompted this reaction to one of the most recent phenomena related to the circumstances of sports in our society. This review is a bit technical. Bear with it, the conclusions are useful!
Its part of our nature—the desire to become better at our craft and to attain achievements measured by our quality of performance on the field of play and by the quantity of appearances thereon. We commit to
Early technology provided ‘detailed’ imaging to assist officials with the field’s lines and planes. Note the precise Goal Line rendering.
Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Charity Game, 1946
improving by utilizing continued education, practice, discussion and feedback, film review, and self-evaluation. As I spent some time in December watching and reading about a host of post-season football games, both high school and collegiate, I noted, as always, the accuracy of the sportscasters’ or journalists’ comments concerning rules of the game and the performance of the officials on the field during the course of the contest. The amount and degree of technical information related to the game is at its highest level among broadcasters, but at times I question its accuracy and legitimacy. One case (at hand) came to light in Cranes Cleveland Business featuring research conducted by a professor and his students from the Cleveland area at Miami University. Exploring Discretionary Foul Biases in Major College Football Officiatingby Rhett Brymer, Mickey Whitford, and Michael Macey at Miami’s Farmer School of Business explores a perceived variation in the officiating performance in games among major college conferences. Drawn from personal and journalistic criticism of collegiate football officiating over the years, Brymer wondered about bias among conference officials in games involving ‘their [conference]’ schools. “The question [the] study addresses, then, is simple. Are there biases with major conference officials based on conference affiliations and the strengths of the teams playing?”
Building upon his previous research, the author utilized data purchased from SportsSorce Analytics including 38,871 fouls called between 2012 and 2015 among the football bowl subdivision teams. The research employed methodology by analysts Kevin Snyder and Michael Lopez who studied ‘discretionary’ fouls called in NFL games. The Brymer study defines discretionary fouls as holding, personal foul, unsportsmanlike conduct, or pass interference—“more subjective and thus, prone to biases”. Further, dichotomous (yes-no) variables were created for team status based upon situation factors: ranking and conference status, wining status, interactions of both, and home field status. Calculated variables were also employed: game uncertainty (score/time remaining calculation) and a calculated betting line measure for the game. The researchers go on to employ ‘big data analytics’—a sophisticated regression analysis--of the large data set to demonstratethat
“Our study shows ample evidence of biases among conference officials. These biases include the often speculated but to date unsubstantiated notion of conference officials showing partiality towards teams with the highest potential to generate revenue for their conference. We believe our study tests only one of many potential ways officials can affect the outcome of the games – officials can influence games with ball spots, possession calls, objective calls, and a host of other decisions they make on the field. These behaviors likely stem from subconscious partiality for particular teams in specific situations given the pressures officials face from a variety of CFB stakeholders (Cohen & Clegg, 2015; Soloman, 2015).”
Ultimately, Brymer’s work proposes the notion that conferences should not employ officials but utilize independent, unaffiliated officials:”Would it help major [college football] to eliminate conference-based officiating for a centrally governed model?
… Our results suggest that conference affiliation has significant influence on how games are officiated, as itcreates an additional and avoidable layer of biases in their employee officials.
Conclusions of this nature spawn a host of reactions, often critical of officials, among sportswriters and analysts alike who blame officials for what they perceive as less than perfect performances on the field. In a December, 2016 article in Bloomberg Business WeekBryan Gruly reviews Brymer’s study accurately, but fuels debate about a number of recent game and foul situations he deemed as questionable. “The Miami of Ohio research offers no evidence that specific officials intentionally skewed game outcomes. Nor does it assert that conferences would try to manipulate the part-time, independent contractors who officiate for $2,000 to $2,500 a game.” He (and Brymer) did consult members of the officiating community—Rogers Redding, Barry Mano, John Adams, and others—who provided insights to the research and reactions, but the message appears to prevail: games are impacted by officials’ inaccuracies that can be addressed.
Back to the research!
Inherent research design weaknesses complicate the conclusions that Brymer draws. The study is correlational in nature; it relates constructed variables to explore trends that might exist in the data set. While this data is analyzed accurately, demonstrated quantitative relationships do not imply nor support the cause-effect outcomes as implied in the conclusion statement: “conference officials showing partiality [based upon fouls called] towards teams with the highest potential to generate revenue for their conference.” Correlation does not imply causation; sample variance and sample bias do not go to zero with big data; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Snyder and Lopez acknowledge similar limitations in their NFL study mentioned above.
Further, an inspection of the selected variables finds omissions that could play a significant part in the analysis had they been present and accounted for. As a game progresses, players and coaches do not remain constant. Substitute players and coaching strategies as well as player fatigue could very well affect the quality of play and the potential to commit any of the ‘discretionary’ fouls. The assumption in this study appears to ignore any of these factors and rely upon the notion that players actions and coaching remain perfectly constant from minute one to minute 60 of a game while variances in the incidence of fouls is exclusively due to the actions of officials. This is a critical omission.
Also missing from the analysis, and implied by Rogers Redding, is any recognition of no-calls which can also impact the data analysis. The actions and observations on the field which are part and parcel of the officiating process cannot be completely quantified. Research into the discreet inspection of players’, coaches’, or officials’ performance must recognize and acknowledge design and data limitations no matter how large and impressive big data appears to be.
Finally, the data itself requires scrutiny. Reliable inferences especially causal, are suspect when drawn from large, diverse data gathered without control, with unknown bias, and missing data, and an abundance of confounding factors. Will the data answer the question at hand? Tools to assess and evaluate the assembled data are needed to interpret its suitability for exploratory analyses of this nature, the data collection, and control.
What to consider.
Dr. Sacco says “let go of mistakes”, use technology to learn and improve. Good advice! I add that while big data and technology can provide valuable and useful information, always consider the limitations and omissions inherent in the information that can render invalid conclusions.
Members’ Corner
CFOA thanks the Cleveland Browns and Kent Intagliata. Kent was able to coordinate with the Cleveland Browns to donate 20 pairs of tickets to the December 24th game versus the San Diego Chargers in the Kardiac Club section. The tickets included complimentary food and beverage in the climate controlled Kardiac lounge. It was a great time by all who attended and most of all a Cleveland Browns victory!
Service awards (2017) featured Alan Poszywak and Ernie Johnson with 45 years, Dave Hicks with 50 years and Bobby Maver with 60 years.
Condolences
Sadly, we lost two friends recently. Our thoughts and prayers are extended for Millie Corrigan, Tom Corrigan's mom who died in December; also pray for Reverend Ross DeJohn, Mike’s dad, who passed away in November.
Check Out History!
The Cleveland Rams
Learn a bit of Cleveland history by engaging clevelandhistorical.org or load the free application onto your smart phone. Jim Sulecki, (Jerry’s son) authored a book entitled "The Cleveland Rams: The NFL Champs Who Left Too Soon," wrote an entry about the Rams in Cleveland. More than 600 local sites are documented with interesting historical facts and photos. His book is available on Amazon.
What did you See?
A couple plays worthy of review; they can likely be found with a quick online search.
1. The college football championship game resulted in Clemson’s win over Alabama with a touchdown late in quarter four. Take a look at the TD scoring play. Consider the action by receivers against defenders.
2. During fourth quarter action in super bowl 51, a holding call against Atlanta was assessed. On the same play, review the actions of both receiver and defender during the pass play.
Look closely at the referee tossing that coin!
Some Amusing Quotes—
From Coaches & Players!
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.” - Woody Hayes / Ohio State
"I never graduated from Iowa. But I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's.” – Alex Karras / Iowa
"I could have been a Rhodes Scholar except for my grades." - Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
"I asked Darrell Royal, why he didn't recruit me.” He said, "Well, Walt, we took a look at you, and you weren't any good." - Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State
After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his post-game message to his team was, "All those who need showers, take them." - John McKay / USC
"We didn't tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking." - John McKay / USC
Ohio State's Urban Meyer on one of his players:” He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just saw his grades and he doesn't know the meaning of a lot of words.