USFL 2022 – Week 8 Games – Birmingham, Alabama
Written by Greg Evers - June 2022
Following the Tom Beard Football Officiating Clinic in El Paso, I travelled back to Birmingham, Alabama for more USFL games and the opportunity to continue my growth as an official. Seeing as though I was know in Birmingham for just over two weeks, it was also a good opportunity to develop some habits and routines that will allow me to make the most of the time here in the US, for growth and development.
This past week has continued to provide plenty of positive experiences but it has also provided some challenges. The main challenge that I've been dealing with this week is the feeling of loneliness and missing my wife and children, who are back home in Australia. Having returned from the "highs" of being at a clinic and knowing that I'll be here for a couple of weeks before my next clinic, it's also been quite easy to fall into a lull.
By working during Australian hours, I'm generally not required to be online until the late afternoon or early evening, which if I'm not careful means that I tend to waste quite a lot of time in the mornings and early afternoons. One of the things that Walt Anderson spoke about during the El Paso camp has been resonating with me and that's the point he made about "developing skills and habits that will serve you later". By focusing on this point I've started to implement small things in my daily routine that will continue with my own development and growth. Whether that's adjusting my workout routine with things that I can do in my hotel room, undertaking rulebook and film review study, or working on things like my podcast and website, there are things that I can do on a daily basis that will continue to keep me moving towards my goal. It can be a bit of struggle to stay motivated during these times but that's all part of the journey to achieving your goals.
My wife and kids have been at the forefront of my mind this week and I've been missing them greatly. Knowing that I'm actually missing out on some of the activities that they are undertaking (dance performances etc) is definitely hard. Knowing how much my wife is doing to keep on top of all of the activities that the kids have on, I'm extremely thankful and appreciative that she's supported me on this trip and my goals. She's been doing such an awesome job and I can't wait to get home to help her out. Being over here and missing her birthday was extremely hard. I'm looking forward to getting home and being able to show her how much I've appreciated her support for this trip.
The weekdays this week were spent working on developing actions and routines that will enable me to continue to work towards my goal, which did take a fair amount of conscious thought to determine exactly how I wanted to structure my days to make them as productive as I could. If I couldn't develep routines and habits during this time, when I have no family with me, then I certainly wouldn't be able to develop them once I got home, so it's been a very interesting week working through what I need to implement to continue to work towards my goal, and how I can incorporate those once I get home.
The USFL games this week were spread over three days, with a Friday night game, Saturday afternoon and two Sunday games. All of the games this week were held at a different field to the previous games, as there was a Garth Brooks concert being held at the main stadium on the Saturday night. The games were being held at Legion Field, which is a pretty historical field here in Birmingham. When you arrive there are statues and quotes from Coach Paul W "Bear" Bryant, which for anyone involved in the sport of American Football, his reputation proceeds him so to see statues commerating his achievements as well as plaques with the names of people from Alabama who died in WWI, it shows the historical nature of this stadium.
One of the officials that I've been getting to know during this trip was trying to organise some pressbox passes for the games. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication somewhere along the line and when I arrived at the stadium to pick up the pass to allow me to get in to the field, it wasn't available. That just meant that I ended up going through as a normal paying spectator which was actually quite good. Due to arriving with plenty of time before the game, I was able to get a seat pretty close to the field which allowed for a really close view of how the officials worked.
For the Saturday and Sunday games, we were able to sort out the issue with the passes, which meant that I was now able to watch the game from up in the pressbox. This was a fantastic opportunity to watch and observer how the officials worked. Within the pressbox there was a couple of the supervisors and trainers for the officials, so it was a great opportunity to learn from them and hear them explain some of the intracies of the rule differences between College and NCAA. Like everyone that I've met on this trip, they were also interested in hearing a bit about my story and what I'm aiming to do so to be able to explain this to them was great.
Once the games were concluded, I was fortunate to then be allowed to attend their film review session where their supervisor ran through some plays from the game and hear they approached those plays and continue to learn about their mechanics and communication during the plays. It was extremely valuable.
Following the film review sessions some of us went out for dinner and it was another opportunity to listen and learn as they talked through various aspects of the game, as well as hearing about their preparations for the NFL, as some of them are new hires to the NFL. Now it's back to working on my daily actions and habits to keep moving towards my goal.
