Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
There is a more profane term easily interchangeable with “jerk” and there is also a cute, little book titled, “No [Jerks].”
I had what I would call a “jerk” phase from Spring 2005 until the summer of 2010.
I only pivoted from being a jerk when I was told, in a very private lunch – one of only two people in a restaurant – regardless of my level of talent and accomplishments past and present if I could not stop being a jerk, several key players in that company’s division would rather settle for someone less talented who was not a jerk.
There are numerous circumstances that can make it compelling to become a jerk, and to embrace continuing to be a jerk.
We’ll shift from occupational compulsions to sports spectator compulsions.
I’ve heard someone say, “Everyone thinks they can do three things: run a hotel, run a restaurant, and coach.”
Well, there is a fourth thing: officiating a basketball game.
On one hand, it’s fair and accurate basketball is arguably one of two most subjectively officiated sports among all of its levels of play.
With this said, I was not even present at the Warsaw Lady Tigers girls’ basketball game at Valparaiso where I experienced a “jerk relapse.”
I was listening to its radio broadcast instead and piling on within a Facebook post about the officiating at the game. It seemed like many fouls were being called, and the posters noted this along with how long the game was going; not what was good or bad.
Here’s where the jerk part works its way into the moment.
One of the officials was Rollie Thill. The name is probably familiar. He was NOT the jerk.
From my experience calling NAIA women’s basketball, I’ve seen Rollie work a game. Instead of thinking before I posted, I was the lemming joining the others off the cliff.
I think I might have referred to him as “the fifth quarter” or maybe posted that he gets paid by the hour. It appealed to the group, but it lacked complete perspective of what was likely going on in Valparaiso that I did not see, but I still threw myself into the social media post mosh pit.
Rollie eventually got the last word when he was officiating a game I announced in South Bend, and his comment, without mentioning my name, reminded me of my jerk relapse.
The first half of the women’s game was complete, and he moved to the scorer’s table before heading to the locker room saying, “For the record, the first half was completed in 38 minutes.”
My crow was served on a silver platter.
All it would have taken was for me to think for another minute WHY a game Rollie officiated was being panned by fans, and I would not have posted my remark.
Here’s where my comment about basketball officiating’s pervasive subjectivity serves its purpose:
Where most basketball officials begin calling a tighter game, then loosen up or even miss some things from fatigue, Rollie’s game is consistent from start to finish.
You won’t see an NBA-travel get a pass on his watch. A foul is a foul regardless of the quarter. You also see much less chippy behavior among the competing athletes. Furthermore, you won’t see much back talk.
Case in point, Brooke Winchester, a joy to watch among all facets of the game with a notably spirited disposition to go with the talent, had comparatively different body language than usual when she would confer with Rollie following his call.
In my experience in the first season announcing IU South bend basketball, the college kids who work the table had an over/under spot bet on technical fouls a set of twins (who scored nearly 3,500 points between them) would get in their final season.
Two of the fiercest competitors I’ve had the privilege of watching in real time, who would not hide - verbally nor nonverbally - their dissent from any call, were very selective when engaging with Rollie.
Rollie wasn’t inflexible, Rollie wasn’t inaccurate, nor was he being paid by the hour.
He was and is to this day, on the other hand, demonstrating the consistency that – if there is a contagion of such a characteristic in basketball – would probably have many subjective fans sitting down and shutting up earlier in the contest.
As an event worker, I should not have posted my comment in the first place.
The second half of the aforementioned game where Rollie Thill noted the completed time of the first half was also completed in a very tight time frame.
I knew his comment was intended very deservedly for an audience of one.
As many things in life teach us, it only takes a momentary lapse in judgement to create an irreversibly bad impression of myself: only one jerk relapse that time.
