re: Here it is fellas you make the call.

quote:

---

Whistles are in the refs mouth. As soon as the ref decides the play is over he blows the whistle. He doesn't decide the play is over then put the whistle in his mouth.

You are basically taught since rec football to play until you hear the whistle. Everyone followed that except the ref.

---

You cannot be more wrong on all counts. 20 years of officiating here invitations to evaluations by the SEC and the ACC.

You are taught from day one to hold your whistle in your hand. Put that in your mouth and get bumped ...spit out teeth for the rest of the night.

Whistles fall out of your mouth, the pea inside pops out, you don't clamp down hard enough and spit the whistle out. It happens all the time .....But one thing is for certain.

A live ball is live until it is dead. And guess what? There isn't word one in that statement that says a whistle must blow or a signal given.

The call is wrong period. Running backs come to a stop constantly and whistles don't blow. They stop from violent hits, gain control and dig again.

The whistles you hear are mirror whistles. The LJ has already blown his whistle. The act of leaving the pylon tells those that know, the ball is dead. If he's confident he's blowing again and again during his signal overhead to stop.

#88 pulling ... never called pulling, pushing they are ignored.

Laying on the defender .....how many times do you see that in an open field? No knee, no forearm, no body part touches the ground ...try again, he's not down.

You have to know the mechanic to know when he makes the judgment that the runner is down.

Prior to the snap. Both the Head Linesman and in this case the Line Judge are located off the field in no man's land. That is a six foot band around the field.

Field and Side Judge are the pylon in the back of the endzone along with the Back Judge.

Within the seven yard line going in. The first step by the Line Judge and Head Linesman is to the goal line. In this case two steps .... Thou Shalt not leave the pylon until the ball is dead or a score is made.

This is referred to as officiating out ....He has the Goal Line!

The LJ is still at the pylon, when he decides the forward progress is stopped. Leaving the pylon, he blows his whistle while closing toward his mark and drifts toward the two yard line, while signaling the ball is dead ....

Again ..in this case.. the ball is dead before he leaves the pylon! The ball is dead before the whistle sounds, the ball is dead before the signal given. So, in micro seconds ...

Dead Ball

Gap (Human reaction time)

Whistle

Gap (Human reaction time

Signal.

There are times in a game where the runner goes down and the only whistle you hear is well away from the ball because those players don't realize the ball is dead.

The only thing questioned ....was he down or not?