Adams: Former official getting a Goode view

The transition from the field to the press box is a natural progression in football. Players end one season on the field and begin the next one as a color commentator.

Now, long after he played his last football game, Knoxville's Rocky Goode is changing his vantage point on the game he has loved since he was a kid. The longtime SEC official will watch this season from higher ground with a critical eye, as an official "observer and communicator."

The move from the field to the press box isn't sudden. Goode sat out last season while recovering from knee surgery. But he went through rehabilitation with a goal of returning to the field. He didn't quite make it.

He based his final decision on what was best for the game, not himself. As corny as that might read, when you officiate football at that level, you have that kind of respect for the game.

When he decided he wouldn't be 100 percent, Goode retired - saying, "The game deserves more than that."

The game won't go on without him.

He will work the games from the press box, assisting the replay official and evaluating his former colleagues on the field.

"I'll be in the pregame and postgame meetings," he said. "The only difference is I won't be on the field. My preference is to be on the field. That's where I developed a level of comfort.

"But I look at this as an opportunity to give something back. Younger officials learn from critiques. We are a unique group of people in that we actually critique each other."

Goode joined the officiating fraternity way back in 1975. But he never worked a Tennessee game.

That wasn't happenstance. Officials aren't assigned to games in which they would have a connection to one of the schools. It's not a question as to whether they could be objective. It's a matter of perception.

The way Goode describes officiating, it wouldn't matter what teams were on the field. It's not Alabama vs. Ole Miss. It's offense vs. defense.

"You almost get into a trance," Goode said. "You're oblivious to everything else."

You would think all of the games would run together, particularly since Goode was never involved in a controversial, game-altering call that could follow you forever in a region so passionate about college football. But a game 10 years ago still stands out above all the others. It wasn't an SEC championship game in Atlanta. It was Alabama vs. Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss.

That was Goode's first televised game to head up the officiating crew as a referee. Bobby Gaston, the SEC's director of officials at the time, was at the game. So was then-SEC commissioner Roy Kramer.

A member of the crew couldn't resist reminding Goode of the elite press-box audience. "You better not mess up," he jokingly told Goode.

Everything about the game was magnified for Goode. He vividly remembers walking around the field and checking all the markings.

He also remembers that the pregame jitters were more significant than ever.

During the national anthem, he bowed his head and said a prayer. When the song ended, the butterflies were gone, and the game was on.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.