REFS NEED LOVE TOO

Howard Webb’s Lessons And Dealing With Negative Self-Talk

• David Gerson

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Big games don’t get easier; you get better at carrying them. Ahead of my first State Cup final, I open up about nerves, preparation, and the quiet work that turns pressure into focus: fitness tuned for late sprints, gear and crew checks that prevent chaos, and a five-minute reset that keeps me in the match instead of in my head. The heart of the story is confidence earned over 1,500 matches and the decision to judge what’s in front of me, not the crowd around me.

Howard Webb’s The Man in the Middle adds hard-won wisdom to that mindset. We walk through his Goodison Park lesson on how dangerous it is to “hide” from decisions, the halftime mind games players use to tilt your judgment, and the power of owning mistakes quickly so the next call is clean. We also dig into respect, or the lack of it, even at the top level, and why referee solidarity is non-negotiable. From there, we push for practical change: body cameras that reduce abuse and dissent, and communication systems that help train new officials in real time. If the sidelines already have multiple cameras, it’s time the referee team had tools that protect and develop them too.

The mailbag brings warmth and urgency. A 60-year-old ref logging 60 games makes the case for body cams after assaults. A dad-daughter duo in North Carolina discovers how ref work builds confidence, grit, and a bond that outlasts any scoreline. For every late starter chasing a high assignment, there’s a reminder to keep family first; the matches will go on, but the breakfasts, concerts, and small moments at home matter most. Subscribe, share this with a ref who needs a lift, and leave a review telling us the one habit that steadies you before kickoff.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to the Reps Need Love2 Podcast, a show that gives you a real wrong behind-the-scenes view, one of the hardest jobs on the pitch, the referee. I'm your host, David Gerson, a grassroots referee and certified mentor. Now with over 11 years of experience and 1300 man, I think I'm up to 1500 matches under my belt. You can find me at RefsneedLove2.com on Instagram, TikTok, and now on YouTube. This week, I will be refereeing my first State Cup final. I'm a little bit nervous, so we're gonna chat about it. And the advice I would normally give to other people, I'm gonna give to myself. Additionally, I just finished Howard Webb's book, The Man in the Middle. It was a good read. I'm gonna share some of my favorite excerpts. Lastly, we're gonna go through a few of my favorite letters from the mailbag I've received recently. Before we get there, a quick reminder: it's the holiday time. It is time to get the referees in your life or yourself some new kit. Everything gets poured back into making the channel possible. If you order this week, you can still get one of the cool, fun holiday sweaters that I've created. I even added some Hanukkah ones this year as well. If you want to get referee like red and yellow cards or coins for all your ref buddies in your neck of the woods, you want to get them gifts, shoot me a message. I'll give you bulk pricing, okay? So you can hook everyone up. If you haven't upgraded your flags, I got great like premium rubber handle flags, real inexpensive. I've got the new buzzer flags that should be in my store this week. Just please check back on stock because as soon as I get them in, they wind up selling out the same day. And lastly, if you haven't gotten a hoodie or a quarter zip, man, invest. They're fantastic. I've got both lightweight things in my store and heavier weight for those of you up in Minnesota or upstate New York or my Canadian friends north of the border. So hook yourself up, man. Treat yourself. All right. I've been assigned two referee assignments and two fourth official assignments for Georgia State Cup this weekend. I've got the whistle for U16 semis and I've got the whistle for U19 finals. And I won't lie, I've been a little nervous. You start wondering to yourself, am I fit enough? Am I qualified? You start thinking about all the things that go wrong. And then I remember that people email me like all the time, like asking for my advice because they're doing their first like ECNL or MLS next or UPSL or MPL game. And you know, like, hey, I'm nervous and give them advice every time trying to pump them up. So I'm gonna go through some of the things that I tell them and I'm gonna tell myself at the same time. Actually, when I was jotting this down, preparing this podcast, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so true. Number one, they don't assign you for these kind of matches if they don't think you're ready for it for State Cup final. They've seen you before, they know what you can do. Same thing for MLS next. Mike, our guy here in Georgia, Mike Wright, and his wonderful wife Ann Wright, are very tuned into the community. They know the types of matches you've done in the past and they have an understanding of what you're able to do. They wouldn't put you on this assignment unless they thought you could handle this task. So that's number one. Number two, you're qualified. In my situation, I've been doing this for 11 years. Though I haven't had a whistle on the final, I've been a referee in a semifinal. I've also been an assistant referee and fourth official in a final. Last year, one of the referees went down in the match as the referee, and I was the fourth official. I had to step up and jump in as the referee. And it was a tight game. That game actually wound up going an extra 20 minutes due to head injuries, a bloody nose. Like it was it was a really tough match to officiate on a, you know, I know it was a hot day because I think this was our May State Cup. We do State Cup both in December and in May. And I man, it was a hot one. I'll tell you that. It was definitely hot out there on the turf, but we got through it, which was great. I've been through that roller coaster of emotions. I've also seen it on the spectator side when my son played in State Cup finals. He lost one and he won two. So I've been through those sad emotions and the good emotions. So, you know, I'm prepared for that type of environment. I'll also say that the officials on those games were fantastic. And I always remember that as well. It's like they were great refs for those big games. And I hope I'm one of them. That's for sure. I do worry about am I fit enough? And I've been battling back from a glute injury, but I've been working out every day. I've been doing heavy lifting, balanced with high-intensity workouts on other days, and even some longer tempo jogs and interval sprints. So I know that fitness-wise, I can do this. Number four, I want to be there. I've worked many years for this. I deserve this. Pressure is a privilege that I have earned and I'm ready for this moment and to make the hard calls that need to be made. Again, in my 1500 matches now, I've seen thousands upon thousands of situations. And in my little side hustle here of the rest need love to thing, I see plays every single day. I have prepared myself to recognize, you know, what should constitute different cards. What when can I manage through situations? You know, when is something a red card as opposed to a yellow card? You know, how to interact with coaches and players to try and bring them back under control. So I've put in the time and I'm ready. As much, and this is a big one, I got a little emotional typing this out last night, but as much as I'm doing this for me, I'm doing it for all of the older guys like me who started to become referees in their 40s, 50s, or even their 60s. Unfortunately, I didn't start refereeing in my teens or 20s when I was at peak fitness. And when I could easily travel before we had kids, I started my refereeing late in life. I'll never be a regional referee. This may be as high as I ever achieve as a ref, as a State Cup final referee. And I'm honored to have the opportunity and I'm proud of what I've accomplished over these 11 years. So I'm doing it for me, but I'm doing it for everyone else out there who's aspiring to be the best they can be, but maybe they started a little late in life. Number six, I'm completely focused on my prematch prep. I am already thinking about the meals I'm gonna be eating a few days in advance, thinking about my hydration. I'm making sure I have all my kit and gear checked and rechecked the day before the match last night. My dog, my boy Chip, peed my referee suitcase. I had to go through and clean it, make sure no pee got inside. I did have to wash. One thing I'm like, oh my gosh, you're killing me because I have it up in my closet. Man, maybe I need to start storing it off the floor. He's not a big dog, so he can't lift his leg that high. I tell you, Chip, that wouldn't have been fun reaching into my ref suitcase on game day and it's smelling like dog pee. So really focused on my pre-match prep. I'm gonna make sure I've got all my kit and my gear checked and rechecked the day before the match. I'm gonna go through all the pregame I want with my crew. I've got my pregame on my referee cards, but I know what we're gonna go through. And I'm really gonna make sure that I'm gonna have the absolute maximum amount of time that I can for my warm. I take my warm-ups very serious pre-match. It really helps me feel like I'm ready to go from that first whistle if I have a proper one. So I'm gonna make sure that we do that too. Number seven, I can't wait for kickoff. Like I'm so excited right now. I just wanted to kick off. I'm gonna try and visualize everything going well and focus on reading the game in front of me. And that's really important. If I feel I missed a call during the game, I'm gonna try to stay in the moment and look forward. I'm gonna simply try to be the best referee for the next five minutes and the next five minutes, and the next five minutes until the final whistle blows. Sometimes maybe you make a call, maybe you don't make a call, and you're wondering, should that have been a call? Should that have been a card or something like that? I can't do that. You make your call, trust your gut, go with what you know in that moment, and then leave it behind. There's time to reflect after the match, but during the match, stay focused and engaged. Look forward until that final whistle blows when you can finally reflect with your fellow crewmates, or in this game, there'll certainly be assessors there, you know, or coaches as they're called now to give his feedback. That's the time to reflect. In the game, stay focused. And then the last thing, no matter what happens, I know that I will have given everything, everything that I am, everything that I've learned, every ounce of energy and focus that I can muster. That state championship game will mean everything to those kids in that moment, but it will also mean everything to me. Two wish me luck, and I'll let you know how it goes. So now, from me as a referee doing State Cup finals to Howard Webb, who refereed the World Cup Final, Champions League finals, FA Cup final. This guy has really done everything, but he was also a man who had a wife and eventually an ex-wife, unfortunately, and three kids, and came up through the grassroots ladder. All of us out there. He had an extraordinary career. There were some excerpts in the book I wanted to share with you that were good reminders. I'm not gonna read you the whole book, it's 300 pages, but I thought there were some good things to share with you as I look forward to a final as well. This is one excerpt that is a little bit longer, but I'll read you a few. But I just think there's some good lessons in his book. I will say too, he uses some English slang a few times. So I may translate into an American slang. I thought this is a really good one. So actually, the name of this chapter is from You're Starting to Let Us Down, Ref. He had a it came up through grassroots refereeing, and then you start doing more county matches, and moving up the ladder in England from the lowest levels of sevens and six and five, and eventually you make it to that elite group that does Premier League matches. And this was early in his Premier League career. And he writes that some Premier League grounds are more hostile than others. One such cauldron was Goodison Park, which, along with Stokes Britannia Stadium, tended to be the most challenging arena for me. A particularly troublesome game, one of the toughest I ever refed, in hindsight, took place at Everton in early December, ending in a 3-2 home victory over Bolton Wanderers. Both sides were teaming with tough, tenacious characters that day. Alan Stubbs and Duncan Ferguson for Everton, and Ivan Campo and Kevin Davies for Bolton. I knew I'd have my work cut out trying to corral these extra strong personalities. In the first period, despite giving decisions as I saw fit, I was conscious that the majority were going in Bolton's favor. I soon became aware of the resentment slowly building up among the Toffee supporters, and I felt the bad vibes transmitting onto the pitch. Every time I reprimanded an Everton player, the crowd bade for my blood and their team got on my back. Around the 30th minute mark, self-doubt began to creep in. This is by some distance the most damaging mid-match emotion for a referee to experience. Was I being too harsh? Was I calling things badly? From that point on, I began to limit the stoppages, curb the whistle, and let more things go. As a direct result, the tempo rose and the aggression escalated. I started to hide. In effect, which is a cardinal sin, rather than being intimidated by my surroundings, I should have maintained the courage of my convictions, followed my gut instinct, and thought, bollocks to all of you. But I failed to do so that afternoon. Just prior to halftime, Bolton Captain Gary Speed ambled over for a word. He said, You're starting to let us down, ref, looking me straight in the eye. Don't be stupid, I replied, feeling slightly affronted. Although deep down I knew exactly what he meant. I was letting them down. I wasn't doing my job properly, I'd mishandled too many incidents, I'd allowed myself to be swayed by the atmosphere, and as a result his team wasn't being protected. I the game went from bad to worse, and I just wanted to go home. My nightmare on Gladworth Street taught me a brutal lesson in game management. A dreadful day was compounded with an appalling assessment from the independent match delegate, David Dent. My average score usually fluctuated between 23.8 and 24 out of 30, but that day he met it out a derisory 14, the lowest mark I'd ever receive in almost 300 top flight matches. I thought it was so interesting where he talked about being intimidated by the surroundings. And instead of maintaining the courage of his convictions, he failed to do it. Essentially, he swallowed the whistle. He let more things go. To try and make one crowd happy, he let more and more tackles fly in against the team and didn't make calls. He knew he should have been making. As a referee, we have a job to do, especially in grassroots. If you're hearing someone complain about your calls, you can stop the game, especially parents. This isn't the Premier League. You got someone who's crying about you not making a lot of calls in favor of their team. Just go to coach, be hey, coach, that guy or girl, they need to stop right now. You need to go have a conversation with them. Or coach, you're engaged in public dissent. Like, but it shouldn't change how we make calls. We need to continue to make the calls we need to make out there. And again, I think it's so interesting that a Premier League referee who's been through again thousands of matches in many environments had that happen to them where they let the environment change the calls they were making. This is another one from Britannia Stadium. Again, they talk about Stoke, rough place, right? Said, I remember Gary Neville once having a serious go at me in the Britannia Stadium tunnel, complaining about a messy tackle by Stokes Robert Hooth on Michael Carrer. It was borderline red, yellow, and orange as we often termed it, but I'd erred toward caution and plumped for the lesser sanction. This decision was playing on my mind as we waited to go back onto the pitch, however, and it was obviously at the forefront of Neville's too. Have you seen that tackle back? He yelled down the tunnel, knowing full well that I wouldn't have done. It's a shocker, ref. Leg breaker, horrendous. You'll be embarrassed when you see it on match of the day. I turned into BBC One at 10 35 PM, virtually watching the footage through my fingers. Only discovered that my decision had been correct and that it had been clear-cut yellow. Nothing like a bread. It had taught me a valuable lesson. Never believe anything you hear from players or managers at halftime until you've seen it with your own eyes. I'd warn any rookie refs who worked alongside me. They'll try every trick in the book to get into your head and alter your mindset. Be strong. Don't be swayed. Believe in yourself. How many times have you had some coach scream, That's a red guard? And you're like, What? Trust in your instincts. If you want to go have a conversation with your assistant referee, have that conversation and then move on. But don't listen to coaches, players, and spectators. They are just always going to be biased. They're always going to be trying to advocate for their team. And it's just, it's never wise. There was another section of the book where he talks about post-match. A manager comes into the referee's changing room and is screaming, it wasn't a fucking penalty. I can't believe you gave that. It's a fucking disgrace. He said to the coach, hey man, come back in five minutes. I haven't seen it yet, but I'll give you my honest judgment about it. The guy came back and recognized that he got it wrong. He shouldn't have given the penalty. His gut was wrong. He said to the coach, Hey, Martin, I've got an apology to make. I just didn't read it right. Everything told me it was a penalty. The bottom line is I messed up and I'm so sorry. The coach was like, you know, he had gone from calling me a disgrace to saying, ah, don't worry about yourself. These things happen. He said, gently sitting beside me and placing his arm around my shoulder, don't let it ruin your Christmas. I think that's another great lesson, too. Like if you miss something or you didn't see something, whether it's at halftime, full time, or even during the match, if I didn't see it and someone's complaining that something happened, I'll say, I'm sorry, I didn't see it. My mistake. Or I'm sorry, I can only call what I see. And you'd be amazed how quickly that takes wind out of someone's sails. They're blowing all this at you. All of a sudden, everything just calms down, which I think is so great. I would say also he had errors on the biggest stage. You know, in World Cup final, Spain versus the Netherlands. There's a famous kung fu kick from DeJong on, I think it's David Silver or something like that, in the a World Cup final. And he missed it. He gave a yellow card when it should have been a red card challenge. Everyone agrees it should have been. And he agrees that it should have been. But on that day, this is before VAR, he didn't have a good view of it. He didn't see the contact, and he gave a yellow card. And I love this analogy that a journalist used to sum up his emotions. It's like you feel like a bride who, having enjoyed sunny days in the run-up to her wedding, has torrential rain on her big day. She's still got the photos to prove that she got married, and she still sees it as a momentous, memorable occasion, but forever it'll be dampened by that downpour. In a game, you could make a hundred great calls. Even a no-call can sometimes be a great call, but you have one call that you miss, and it's the thing that you hang on to forever. And we do have to try and learn from those moments that we've missed, but focus on the fact that we were there but did the best that we possibly could. I would say just a couple things about the end of the book. Howard was the most successful referee, arguably, in England's history. Like literally their entire history. You know, again, did the biggest matches Real Madrid, Bayern, Munich, Champions League, you know, matches, semifinals, finals. Again, he was a World Cup referee on multiple occasions. He did the World Cup final, he went to the Olympics. Like this guy was amazing. And yet he would still go home to his hometown, and people would yell nasty things at him. He'd go referee back in the Premier League, and people would be, quote, fuck off Webb, you fucking wanker. Hope you're better than last time, you tosser. He should have been celebrated as a national hero. To come from a small town in England and rise up onto the biggest stages in the world, and yet treated like crap. I think if he was a player, even if he was on a team that someone might have considered to be an adversary, there'd be so much more respect. But because he was a referee, he was vilified by everyone, except for his fellow referees, which is important. We need to have each other's back. We understand what people go through, that's for sure. Which is really key. There's the last thing I just want to do about this one, and this one really hit me hard. He talks about, again, two things that I that I want to talk about. One thing, just real quick here, he does talk about the fact that I thought this was so cool, that goalkeepers I'm a goalkeeper, love my goalkeepers out there. He talks about the player referee relationships, and he says most of them were positive and respectful. They did their job, I did mine, and we tried to work together the best that I could. But he definitely liked people who were enthusiastic, glass half full individuals who seemed to revel in their football and appeared to savor every moment. Gianluigi Buffon, captain of both Italy and Juventus, was a perfect example. The guy sported a permanent grant and had tons of charisma despite being one of the most exalted goalies in Europe. He was without edge or ego. And he'd always say, Ciao, Howard, good to see you over in Italy again. I wish you well with the game, my friend. He writes, I wasn't the only match official who tended to form stronger bonds with goalies than outfield players. We just seemed to have more in common. Like us, they had a more isolated role on the field of play. Like us, they could deliver an exemplary display for 89 minutes, but their entire performance could be defined by a last gas cock-up. This would often be in direct contrast with their striker buddies, who could have a shocking game, perhaps fluffing several sitters in the process before nicking a final minute winner and riding out as instant heroes. I find that goalies had greater affinity with the officials' roles too. Their detached position often gave them more objective view of the action, enabling them to see the bigger picture as moves and incidents developed and as rest decisions and measures were taken. Level-headed, undemanding keepers, Tim Howard, Brad Friedel, Peter Check, you know, as some of them love that there's a couple of Americans in there. I just thought that was so cool. And I also agree. And I always tell goalkeepers out there, goalkeepers make great referees. That's a fact. Last one here, and I think this is so important. When I see a professional referee, I know a lot of people look at their demeanor and how strong they are, and judge their calls on the pitch. But generally, when I see a referee, I see sacrifice. I see someone who has toiled for 10 to 12 years, maybe 15 years, working their way up through grassroots, doing those UPL, UPSL matches in the middle of nowhere for barely enough money to cover gas and food to travel, but doing those fourth official assignments, standing there and driving rain or sleet and snow, waking up every morning before their full-time job to work out, to make sure they're fit enough to go, you know, do those big heavy matches on the weekends and working Friday nights and Saturday nights and Sundays and traveling all over the country to get noticed. And again, even when you make it to the big time to the MLS, you know, here in America or in the Premier League, most of those people don't do that as their full-time job. They have side hustles as well. Until Howard Webb was doing Champions League matches on the regular, he was still a police officer. So he was a and he had worked a lot of night shift and stuff like that as well to kind of make the refereeing thing or make you know make ends meet for his family. I think about sacrifice, and this paragraph kind of hit me hard. He says there's a lot about my former job that I don't miss though. That fairly important section between coin toss and final whistle for starters. Bizarre though it may sound, while I love being part of the refereeing fraternity, I sometimes dreaded the actual stints on the pitch, and certainly towards the end of my career, often spent that 90-minute period wavering between fear and loathing. The before and after was far easier to bear, and I try to get through that crucial bit in the middle with minimal fuss and maximum damage limitation. On occasion I'd be lucky enough to breeze through a match relatively painlessly, but the vast majority wore me out mentally and sometimes physically. The need to focus, to evaluate, and to legislate for two halves of football, your every action being watched over by thousands in the stand and millions on TV would make your brain hurt and your head pound. And then there was the added uncertainty and unpredictability of a football match to deal with. Even the most prepared professional referee couldn't predict what lay around the corner and couldn't foresee if he was about to make the best or worst decision of his life. Unsurprisingly, I don't miss the flack and the fallout from a bad decision or a poor performance. The mobbing by the players, the taunting from the terraces, the intimidation by a manager, the pacing in social media, the long sulks, the low mood, your lost sleep. Neither did I like the fact when something went badly on the pitch, it could affect my family off it. Why I had willingly chosen to enter the world of officialdom, my wife and children hadn't, yet they regularly needed to be shielded from some football-related storm or other. The events of Euro 2008 proved to be particularly distressing. But whenever I was embroiled in any kind of controversy, Ryan Babbel's tweet or De Yong's karate kick, Kay and the kids would have to brace themselves for the odd comment or two, whether it was in the playground or at the school gates, and that used to really upset me. Referee drained so much of my spare time too, and it often took me far away from my family home. If I wasn't on the road or on a plane, I'd be running around a pitch, immersing myself in training or attending a conference. Between 2006 and 2014, I never spent the month of June at home. For three quarters of the year, Fridays and Saturdays were wiped off my social calendar. I'm not trolling for sympathy. I'd known what to expect when I signed up, but being absent for school concerts, friends' weddings, and children's birthdays wasn't ideal. I had to sacrifice a lot for refereeing, and it was often my family who suffered. I remember once grumbling to Kay who was rightly unhappy and having to trapeze to another wacky warehouse, essentially a single parent. Normal people who've got a life outside football, Howard. That too came her weary but truthful response. Unfortunately, Howard wound up getting divorced from his first wife in 2016. He did wind up getting remarried to a very famous German referee in 2019. I love being a referee. I love being out on the pitch, but we really need to make sure that we get our priorities straight, make sure that we're there for our family commitments. The games will go on, no matter how desperate the emails come from the assigners. I need someone. Oh my gosh, we need people, you know, at three o'clock. I just had a ref drop. You don't have to be that rough. Someone will pick it up. Honestly, maybe they'll just have two refs on that game as opposed to three, but you need to make sure that your priorities are in the right order. You know, take care of your spouse. If you have a spouse, your kids, if you have a kid, be there for all those moments, be there for the concerts, be there for their games. And sometimes just being there to sit on the couch and hang out and be there for big family breakfast on Saturday or Sunday or whatever it might be. Those little moments in between the big moments can be the most special. Some of the stuff this last weekend I so enjoyed having my kids home. It was so wonderful. I was invited to go referee a tournament in this past weekend, but I'm like, man, it's Thanksgiving. I'm not leaving my kids. I'm not leaving my wife. I got my best friends here at the house. So make sure you keep your priorities in order. Again, overall, I would just say the I'd recommend the Howard Webb book, The Man in the Middle. He's fascinating. I mean, this book was written before he took over the MLS here in the United States and before his time running PGMOL in England, but still, he was really ahead of his time. He did a lot of very progressive things when he got out of the game. I think it's an interesting book to check out and read and a very interesting guide, to say the least. So check it out. We're going to go through a couple letters from the mailbag, which I always enjoy, and then wrap it up. But this first one hit pretty hard. This is from Michelle Gorman. She lives in Florida and Montana. She writes, Hi Dave, I've listened to your podcast and participated in the women's initiative, recertified after taking eight years off, worked as an assistant referee and centered in several adult and youth league games, both in Florida and Montana, over my 60 games in my 60th year, which I love. 60 games in her 60th year. What's up, Michelle? So cool. And I've attended several in-person and Zoom sessions for referee development during the year I returned to the pitch. After personally experiencing physical and verbal referee assault during my year back, I believe all referees need body cameras and should own their footage. Referees can file reports, back up or defend claims, and for liability purposes. The game involves parent players and leagues spending lots of money, and the customer has all the power. Referees have nothing, and it's only gotten worse. I would really like to discuss this with Carrie Sites. Maybe you and I could schedule a good time to zoom or talk if you are interested. Thank you, respectfully, Michelle Warren. I sent a message to Matt Cheeseman, who works on Carrie's team and to Carrie with Michelle's message and another person who sent me a message this week as well. I believe that communication devices, like, there's no reason we shouldn't have them as grassroots referees. Like, come on, please. It's such a wonderful training tool. And I know so many referees who are already doing it. Can you please just legalize it again? I don't know what happened that made the U.S. soccer issue that memo saying that comms devices aren't recommended for grassroots referees or shouldn't be used, but it's so helpful. And then body cams. Body cams have been proven, have shown in numerous trials over in England that they, you know, effectively almost eliminate referee abuse and significantly decrease the incidences of descent. The body cams are not recording full games. The cameras literally, as descent's happening, the referee touches the camera on their chest and it records the previous 30 seconds and then continues recording until they touch the camera again. So you're not dealing with outrageous amounts of data. Listen, every single one of these games is being recorded. No one questions, you know, whose cameras there are. I've I've watched U10 matches and there's three cameras up on the sidelines. Is anyone really questioning whose camera that is and what they're using that footage for? They're not putting it together for college recruiting videos. Like, come on. As referees, like it is just so many times when it's a he said, she said, and I'm sick of that. The technology exists, it's not too expensive. Why can't we allow our grassroots referees to have body camps? It is time. I've sent a message to Carrie Sites. I encourage everyone out there listening to this podcast to send a message to Carrie Sites. I don't think Carrie listens to my podcast, but if she did, Carrie, please come on. Let's enable our grassroots referees to wear body cameras here in the U.S. and to utilize communication devices as well. It would be so helpful, especially when we got a new referee with a whistle for the first time, or even just a junior referee who's at a couple games working alongside a senior referee to kind of help them and give us some guidance while they're on the pitch. It'd be so great. My daughter and I are newly minted grassroots soccer referees in North Carolina, and I want to tell you how impactful your content has been for our training. The explanations in your videos give life to the rules, which has given us a lot of confidence. Your positive energy is refreshing in a world that is inherently negative toward refs. We're happy we found you. Keep up the good work. Here's my response to Seth. You know, sometimes it's just fun to see how I respond to people. And I do it. I respond to every message. All right, Seth, thanks. So great to hear from you. I'm delighted to hear that you and your daughter got certified. Beyond being a wonderful first job for your daughter, the time and experiences you will share together will be phenomenal. My son and I have refereed over 500 plus games together. We've spent thousands of hours driving to, working, and driving home for matches that we would not have otherwise shared. He is my best friend, and that foundation of love and camaraderie was formed on the pitch as colleagues. We built each other up and pushed each other when times are tough. The resilience, confidence, and communication skills she develops will enable her to be both successful on the pitch and off. It's not an easy job, but life isn't easy. Those who have the grit to power through challenges can do anything they set their minds to. Please let me know if there's anything I can do for you or your daughter. I wish you all the best and please keep in touch and send any questions you have my way. I'm here for you. All right, that's about all the time we have for this week. Thank you again for your support of Reoughs Need Love Too. I could do it without you. Seriously, your engagement, feedback, and love gives me the fuel to keep going. I love you all, and may your next match be Red Card Free.