erhaps it's because of the holiday season, but this time every year, otherwise normal, happy, well-adjusted people start to exhibit an overdeveloped attitude of giving. Witness, for example, the crowd at one of my local high school's games. We're not very good this year, and we've been pretty good in past years. The populace in general hasn't yet come to terms with this new reality. We just kind of expect that we're going to win. And when we don't, well, out comes the attitude of giving.

"That's a travel!"

"He's camping in the lane!!"

"Five seconds!!!"

"And one!!!!"

"Carry!!!!!"

They howl, they rage, they stand and wave their arms like paunchy, middle-aged condors taking flight. And they want exactly one thing: for the ref to give our team back the ball. Perhaps subconsciously they realize that we aren't able to beat the other team, and they are incensed that the refs aren't giving them the ball at every possible opportunity. Perhaps they feel they are giving support to our team by encouraging the refs to be more giving.

Yep, it's all about the giving.

Sadly we referees aren't always immune from this syndrome either. I've been fairly busy on The Forum these past few days, and I've heard some interesting, "giving phrases" from officials there.

Continued...