In addition to his full schedule of college games in the Big 10 Conference, USA Football Officiating consultant Bill LeMonnier is also a referee in the Arena Football League during the spring and summer. Along with his AFL assignments, he stays busy during the traditional ‘off-season' by speaking as a clinician at more than 20 officiating clinics across the country, and recently returned from a trip to Japan, where he hosted an officiating clinic for Japanese officials.
He recently took a few minutes to chat with usafootball.com about a number of topics including game preparation, the differences between working in the AFL compared to the outdoor game and dealing with coaches.
How much time do you spend on preparing for a game?
LeMonnier: "In the course of the week, I don't think it's uncommon to put 20 or so hours into review and preparation for the upcoming game. I spent an awful amount of time looking at game film and breaking it down for my crew. I try to pull 15-20 plays a week that are good mechanic plays and things I think that are going to generate some good discussion, and get us working a good crew consistency. Whether it's in college or Arena, as a head referee we have a conference call each week with all the other head referees and the supervisors to go through some things from last week and some new things for this week - points of emphasis, special things that are happening or maybe some problem areas that are cropping up."
What are some of the things you stress to your crew as you prepare for a game?
LeMonnier: "I'm a firm believer that you need to be consistent. Each individual needs to be consistent so they're making the same call on their side of the field from the beginning of the game until the end of the game regardless of which team it's happening too. But, it's equally important that we get into crew consistency. It doesn't do any good for the head linesman to call pass interference all day on his side of the field but on the other side of the field mayhem happens. That drives players and coaches nuts. And inevitably the same team ends up getting burned by getting it called on them on one side of the field and then against them on the other side of the field. Now that individual official might be consistent, but we're not getting crew consistency on the calls. I think we need to work on crew consistency. I think the players deserve that and so do the coaches."
What's the most difficult part of officiating in the AFL?
LeMonnier: "Obviously, you're playing on a smaller field (50-yards long) and the speed of the games seems to be faster. You are working in a little tighter. On the big field you get a wider, more peripheral look at a lot of things. The other thing about the Arena game is with the nets and balls off boards and all the goofy things that can happen. There are a lot of things that are unique to Arena Football but that stuff teaches you patience. If it teaches you anything it teaches you that patience is really a virtue in officiating."
Do you think the AFL is more similar to college or NFL in terms of officiating?
LeMonnier: "For penalty enforcement it's more similar to the NFL. We have a lot of things with penalties that make it more of a pro game. By position, I get the same look at a snap as I do in the college game. But, for the other positions the game really changes. Wing officials have to mechanically work different and the umpire works a totally different game. It's a lot different game for the other officials."
What you do when you get to the arena prior to an AFL game?
LeMonnier: "We drop our stuff off in the room then head out to the field and do a field inspection - looking to make sure the field is marked properly and that the nets have the right bounce to it. One of the officials is inspecting each of the 20 game balls and checks the pressure of the balls and marks them to make sure they're all good for game use. Two officials go and visit the coaches and talk to them about any unusual play situations or anything the coaches may be concerned about. We have the clock operators come in and meet with the back judge and the referee to make sure we're clear on all the timing situations and the operations of the clock. The head linesman is meeting with the chain crew and the back judge with the ball boys. We are going through a ton of things two hours before our ball game. We're on the go for an hour and a half before the game even starts with the different people at the arena. I have to meet with the team operations people to talk to them about when they're doing player introductions and if there is someone special for the coin toss. All this stuff has nothing to do with football, but those are the things that are part of the show that goes on for the game. There are a lot of things like that that don't have to do with football but have to do with the overall production of a football game."
What happens in the locker room before going to field?
LeMonnier: "At this level guys have different ways they want to prepare for that last 20 minutes (before a game). Some guys do some light stretching exercises. Other guys have a headset on and are listening to some music. One guy I know gets his rule book out and it's his thing to go over some obscure rule quirks that he may want to re-read. There are a lot of different approaches. I like to just throw a towel on the floor do some passive stretching and just clear my mind. That last half hour before a game I don't push that we do a lot of heavy football discussion."
What about at halftime? Do you guys make adjustments like teams do?
LeMonnier: "We review some things from the first half - maybe some discussion on a particular play.It's a time to quickly review some things, but it's amazing how fast 12-15 minutes can go by. It seems like you have just enough time to catch your breath, get a drink of water and then head back out there."
And after the game?
LeMonnier: "In AFL, we have a ton of paperwork to do after the game. Guys are filling out their own individual penalty reports. For every foul they called they have to write the foul and the time. And it's not just holding for example. There are five categories of holding. Was it a takedown, horse collar, shirt stretch, ankle/leg grab or turn and twist? I have to be able to document what type of hold that was on my penalty report. Because when the graders look at the film and I say it was a takedown, it may have been a shirt stretch but if I say takedown I may get downgraded for it. The purpose of that is that if I can't quickly determine what type holding foul that it was on the field, than I probably shouldn't call a foul. And the same goes for other fouls like pass interference. Did he play through the back? Was it an arm bar? Did he get cut off? Tripping?"
Do you conduct your own review with your crew?
LeMonnier: "I do a review on my own. It's not official but it helps us talk about plays. The review I get from the league I usually get by Wednesday. On each line of the play-by-play sheet (typically 90 plays in the AFL) there is a comment. On plays where we have a call we're always going to get graded. It's going to say correct call, incorrect call or marginal call. If it's a marginal call or an incorrect call we are going to get deducted."
How are officials graded?
LeMonnier: "In Arena, we start out with 100 points and as mistakes happen in mechanics or judgment or rule application then you can lose anywhere from 1-6 points per call. When it's all said and done you have a raw score for the game. Obviously, we'd love to see a 100 but generally when you've had a score of 95-100 you've had a pretty good game. When you've had a score of 90-95 you've had an okay game but you know you would have liked to have done better. If you ever get a grade in the 80s you're going to be getting a phone call from a supervisor telling you that you need to pick it up."
How strict is the grading system?
LeMonnier: "They look at every play in the game. Their feeling is if I make a call and it's wrong it's a minus-six. They'll look at the situation around it (point in the game when it happened, etc.) and then my deduction will be based on how that call impacted the game. But any time you call one and it's not there, that's an automatic minus-6. The message is that mistakes are made but it's unacceptable to have a phantom foul called."
What's the competition like among officials to be the best at their position?
LeMonnier: "We're competitive about our grades. Not that I want the other referees to have a bad year, but I sure want my scores to be at a point where I'm being looked at favorably by the league. I want to keep my errors to a minimum and get the best scores that I can possibly get."
What happens if an official continues to get low grades?
LeMonnier: "You can work yourself right out of the league if you are continually on the bottom of the list at your position. It doesn't matter if it's in college or the AFL. You can find yourself staying home more often if you don't get your scores up."
What's your mindset like during a game?
LeMonnier: "There are times when you get caught with angles and there are also times where you miss things. I just want to get plays right. It's competitive. I want to get better but at the same time I want the game to be officiated correctly."
As an official what's the best way to deal with coaches?
LeMonnier: "There are a whole bunch of different styles to coaching. Coaches are coaches and they're going to look at the game from a different perspective. And it's going to be a biased perspective which it should. They're going to defend their team and work you. Even though they are saying some things that are personal at times you can't take it personal. Just make your comments, say what you have to say, choose your words wisely and try not to be cute with them. It's hard sometimes not to want to give them a wise crack back and I've been guilty of that at times. But, you need to be really picky with how you chose your words."
Bill LeMonnier is a USA Football Officiating Consultant and currently works as a referee in the Big Ten Conference and Arena Football League. LeMonnier co-wrote and edited all of USA Football's developmental content and also serves as a speaker and clinician on USA Football's behalf at over 20 nationwide officiating events. He has been a college football official since 1980 and has worked some of the nation's premier games, including the Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl. He was also selected to work the Arena Football League's championship game, ArenaBowl XVII, in 2003.