Rules Guy

This also happened: I was visiting a varsity game where there was an unusual call in the first half. I headed into the locker room, where there was a disagreement on the call, and one of the officials looked at me and said "So, Rules Guy, who's right?"

I gave my take on it (which was right, by the way).

I'm feeling pretty good, since I have my wife give me those Referee magazine quizzes every single month, and I know that I'm pretty good about assessing the appropriate penalty. All that hard work is paying off! A veteran official trusts me with the rules! It's an honorable moniker...I'm Rules Guy!

(By the way, as an aside, wife and I have fun with the rules quizzes. As soon as wife says "A1 has the ball..." I tend to respond with "Oh, A1! Whatever will you do today?" It's a laugh a minute. Maybe we need to get a babysitter and get out for a change...)

I then asked the veteran official: "So, how did I get to be Rules Guy?"

"Oh...you just look like a Rules Guy."

OK. So it's not my dogged determination to be right or my ability to get it right under pressure that he noticed by calling me Rules Guy. It was simply the fact that I'm kinda dorky-looking.

Well...I'll still choose to take it as a compliment. I'm Rules Guy.