Bobref

“Good” is the enemy of better.

Try and find some other level of football, or any sport, where the exhibition season is 150% as long as the longest possible “real” season.

Can you actually stand in front of a mirror and watch yourself say this with a straight face? Do you not see how this stunts the potential of high school football in Indiana?

Depends on the foul being called.

I assumed that. What I’m looking for are examples of whatever it was that caused him to come to that conclusion. Many times I have found that when you probe to get at the underlying facts, there are misconceptions about the rules or mechanics, and people can be educated.

And what exactly makes you say this?

I always spend a week in Quetico, but haven’t been able to get in there the last two Summers.

I’m in Canada instead of at a game observing an officiating crew. On the other hand, there’s this consolation.

Where was your AD during all of this?

I spoke with fans many times when leaving the field after a game. Often times a fan will ask about a particular call or play. If I could educate the fan by answering the question, I would. If it was a “sour grapes” question, I’d avoid it. But it was always about the rules, never about judgment calls. Offering a judgmental observation like that to a perfect stranger is unprofessional, IMO. More problematic is that you have no idea where that observation is going to be repeated, whether it’s going to be repeated accurately, or embellished, or what that person’s reason is for asking the question. Much better to stay away from that stuff.

I’m not crazy about hearing that an official made such a remark in a postgame setting where it might be repeated … as it was.

I usually just put “5K” when they ask for my “race,” since that’s about as far as I can go these days.

This is a live ball foul. Play continues. After the down ends the defense has the option of the result of the play, or 5 yd. penalty from the previous spot and replay the down. Now, if this is a case where a man in motion suddenly cuts sharply toward the line of scrimmage just prior to the snap, there is a school of thought that treats this as a false start, since what happens is essentially the man in motion starts the play before the ball is snapped. In that case, it’s a dead ball foul. Blow the whistle immediately and penalize 5 yds.

I can assure, if a player is consistently playing on the edge, week after week, the officials are quite aware of it. So, either everyone is missing it, or it’s not actually happening. But since you watch film every week, perhaps you can share some clips of this dirty play.

So, by my reckoning, you’ve gone from “he’s a dirty player every week,” to “something happened at the end of the South Warren game.” That’s quite a difference.

Obviously.

It just seems unlikely that all the officials and all the coaches are missing something that only you are picking up on.

But the ball is still dead, as soon as it is possessed by any player, R or K.

When an R player signals for a fair catch, the receivers give up the right to advance the ball in return for protection. It doesn’t matter whether a fair catch, or any catch, is actually made. As soon as an R player possesses the ball, it’s dead.

Technically true. A team is entitled to a new ball at the start of any series. A try is not a new series, so there is no entitlement to a new ball for the try, unless the scoring team was not the team in possession at the start of the down. If you score with the other team’s ball, you can use your own for the try.

I stand corrected. I was quoting Indiana’s Mercy Rule.