Jack Messer - a football referee's point of view

Hey, all you armchair coaches, listen up. Jack Messer can tell you a thing or two about football.

Jack is in his 11^th year as a football referee, officiating for youth at every level from fourth grade to high school varsity. It allows him to combine his love of sports with a sense of accomplishment, and earn a few extra dollars as well.

Jack Messer

Jack said he played sports in high school, and decided to stay involved by being a baseball umpire. He umpired for the next 10 years, until his second child was born. Then the demands of family life outweighed the time required on the baseball field. Sometime after his third child entered school, he got the urge to get back out in the sports world. “I got into officiating to make a little extra money,” Jack said. “What I learned is there’s a great need for competent authority in a game. That was attractive, and I felt I could supply that.”

Because he was familiar with the grind of baseball – the long season, games that could last hours, he decided to try football. After all, football was only a nine-week season, right? “I think the time idea kind of got away from me,” Jack said, noting that he is on the field several nights a week, and spends even more hours in game preparation and travel. But, he says, his wife, Lori, is a saint about it, knowing this is something he feels called to do.

When he first began officiating, Jack said that he had to keep track of his games on a paper calendar, writing everything down. Now it’s all computerized, and he works for five schedulers and can check his assignments on-line. The other big change has been in uniforms. Referees used to wear white knickers and knee-length socks, held together with a tight band of elastic. The black pants the refs get to wear now are so much more comfortable, Jack said.

One of the greatest traits Jack brings to his job is diplomacy. “As an official,” he said, “you are the greatest authority on the field. “ Jack said that officials can be as mean as they want, play hardline rules, kick out coaches and players. But he doesn’t choose to be that sort of official.  So, just how many players has he kicked out of a game? Zero. Coaches? None. “It never got to the point where I felt that should have happened,” Jack said. Instead he uses praise, humor, maybe a little bit of yelling. “I want to make sure everyone gets a fair opportunity,” he said. “That doesn’t mean equal opportunity.”

For example, Jack said, maybe he would let a holding call go if it had nothing to do with where the ball is in play. His use of praise isn’t idle either, but rather lets players know he is watching them. He calls it preventive officiating. His goal is to follow the rules, and be as fair and competent as he can. “I want the kids to feel like they’ve been treated well,” Jack said, “and I want the coaches to feel they had the opportunity to do what they do.”

Jack said he especially enjoys officiating in games with the little kids. “They love the game, they respect you, they’re really trying,” he said.  The parents of those kids are a bit more difficult, according to Jack. “They’re a little more protective,” he said. “The parents have a different set of expectations than what the games provide.”

In fact, it was in one such game, perhaps fifth graders, Jack said, that he had to take action he had never taken before or since, and that was to kick a fan out of the game. “It was a parent or grandparent,” Jack said. “He came at me on the field, swearing and yelling. Everyone was in shock. I kept walking away, didn’t want to engage him.” Eventually the sideline coaches and police got involved and escorted the fan away.

Since some fans do a lot of negative yelling, it’s best to try to tune them out. “It’s a heated environment,” Jack said. “Officials are the only people on the field who don’t have something invested in the outcome.”

For those who like to sit in the bleachers, or at home in their chairs, and offer critiques and second guessing, Jack has this advice: “There’s a shortage of officials, so come on out. It’s really very difficult. You watch players run into each other at 10 or 15 miles an hour. Things happen very fast.”

Jack said he has never been injured, but has been knocked down, once when a 6’5” offensive tackle knocked a linebacker into him on the first play of a game. He has to be in good shape, and usually logs four miles walking and running per game. As for pay, he gets $40 for a youth game, and $75 for a varsity game. He works at least twice as many hours for varsity, so that’s actually a cut in pay. For comparison, the average pay of an NFL referee is about $173,000 a year.

Jack said officiating and his day job as Director of Planning and Development for the city of Overland Park complement each other. He uses diplomacy in both. “I have to implement rules, and I have to do it in a fair way,” Jack said of his city position, “for the residents and the developers.”

Obviously Jack doesn’t officiate for the money. And he doesn’t do it for the praise. “When you work a good game,” Jack said, “no one says a word to you. To do a great job, you’re not noticed.” And that’s as it should be, because the game is about the players. For Jack, it ‘s all for love of the game and working with youth, illustrating for them that competence and fairness matter.