Sense of humor?

One whole day after admitting I need to think more before opening my mouth...

The home team is up 3-1, the forward takes on three defenders entering the penalty area. She loses possession, receiving a couple bumps from the defense during the play. However, there is no push, no hold, no kick and no trip on the play, just a fair shoulder to shoulder challenge which results in the forward making contact with one of the other defenders. The ball, by this point, has moved beyond the forward's playing distance. There is no call to make, so I make none.

Afterward, I approach the forward (keep in mind, I've officiated this gal's games for a few years now and while I am not on particularly friendly terms with her, I've been joking a bit with her teammates prior to this play) and say to her, "Ya know, I'm gonna let them assault you down here." She replies, "What? Why?" "Well, you're up 3-1..." I smile.

Shortly thereafter she is subbed. From 20 yards away I hear her relay what I recently said to her coach in a none too amused tone. I realized, of course, there was little I could do at this point to either assure her I was joking (with hopes of making nice) or prove I was to this particular player (as she wasn't on the pitch). I did tighten up my calls for the remaining 20 minutes, yet the damage had been done. The home team did end up winning 3-2 and there were no injuries or highly debatable calls.

While I think the result of the match was correct, I would have been well-served by not joking with this particular player. I was however, making comments to a couple other players on the home team (and being continually berated by another but that is our relationship, she bitches...I card her on occasion). I done went and got in a good mood and suffered the consequences for it.

So much for thinking before speaking...

In other news (if you can call it that), one of the AR's and I had a good laugh about one parent from the visiting team who made comments about almost every play and call or no call of mine. I was wanting to stop the match and write down some of her comments for posting here and they were so magnificently idiotic, I immediately forgot them (the parents at several recent matches have been so ill-informed concerning the Laws of the Game, the moronic comments all run together).