criticize sports officials if you aren't willing to do it yourself."

What I am saying is "If you love football (or any other sport really) enough to have somewhat of a working knowledge of the rules to the point that you can recognize that there were problems at that game, and want to have some fun, sign up to officiate in your local area at the high school level." It's fun, a great way to grow in your knowledge of the game, a hobby that pays for itself, and also lends to forming great relationships with other officials, coaches, and players.

There is a kid in our ward who plays for one of the local schools. Every week he come up to me and asks me questions about something that got called in his game from that week and usually leads to conversations about how the team is doing as a whole and who they are playing next week and so on.