Things were going fine when...

It was an uneventful weekend of referee duties ... that is until today. High school kids play 4-on-4 games where play virtually goes unstopped for 45 minutes. There are three periods naturally, but no penalties are called unless there is something major going on. Offside plays are called when they're obvious. But for the most part the intention is to keep the kids playing non-stop. It's a conditioning exercise for the most part. And all was fine. Until a second game this morning. One team was crushing another team -- I mean a 25-1 crushing. It was ugly. So the officials at that point just try to keep the game moving in order to end the ugly affair. Well, it only got ugly after the game when an irate parent went overboard and starting yelling and screaming and ranting and raving. When the explanations weren't sufficient, the parent -- a local attorney by the way -- decided to call the official -- me -- a "moron." Very classy act by the way. I suppose he thought he was in court. Geez, I hope not because he's not likely to win many cases calling the "judge" a moron. In any event, the man -- who also plays for a men's team and is terrible and a dirty player -- simply embarrassed himself anyway. People were staring. Some were actually laughing at him. I just looked him in the eye and thanked him...And people wonder why officials would like to see empty stadiums for kids to play their games? It's parents and fans like this that ruin it for everyone. That's OK. I'm sure he feels good about himself, that as an attorney he argued his point. Problem is he was definitely "out of order," or more likely out of his mind...