Football Official

Football Official

Zebra

Somewhere in, NJ

Male, 62

I've officiated football for over 30 years, now in my 26th on the college level. I've worked NCAA playoffs at the Division II and III level. In addition, I've coached at the scholastic level and have been an educator for over 35 years. I have no interest whatsoever in being an NFL official! Ever!

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Last Answer on January 23, 2021

Best Rated

Team A punts from the 50, at the B-1 yard line player A-33 stops the ball and half his body slides across B's goal line. B's ball on B-1 or Touchback.

Asked by Compujok about 9 years ago

Depends on what game you're watching. As i understand it, in the NFL your scenario is a touchback. In college, if the ball is touched at the B1 and it stays there, it's at the one. If the ball is touched at the 1 and goes into the end zone, touchback.

Runner fumbles but ref blows whistle saying down before fumble. Should play stop? If after whistle defender recovers, and review shows was a fumble, why is def team given the ball? It rewards continued play after whistle.

Asked by bridgbum over 9 years ago

Caveat: i have not worked games using replay. Rule 12,Art. 3: I replay has indisputable evidence of a fumble, "it belongs to the recovering team at the spot of recovery. " Without replay, the down is replayed.

So if a kickoff is kept in bounds but the player who received it is our of bound when touched is that a penalty on the kick off team??

Asked by Dylan over 9 years ago

Indeed it is. If the ball touches out of bounds - or anything or anybody who is out of bounds- it is out of bounds. I've actually recently heard of a coach who teaches his receivers to straddle the line (one for out) and catch the ball; that's a kick out of bounds and a foul on the kicking team..

Ky high school football- isn't it an unnecessary roughness penalty if the defender picks up the offensive ball carrier and slams him to the ground?

Asked by Bill over 8 years ago

What you describe is certainly not a "tackle". Wgat you describe is unnecessary. That's a foul.

To what extent is a tackler responsible for knowing whether the ballcarrier is in-bounds or OB? Assume late whistles:
A: Ballcarrier steps on sideline and is immediately tackled.
B: Ballcarrier is two steps OB and is tackled.
C. All cases in-between

Asked by Bridgbum about 9 years ago

That's a good question. Simply put, the tackler is responsible - period. And don't assume any whistle; as is often said, the play kills itself, not the whistle. For example, if a player is down and there's no immediate whistle, and the player gets hit, it's a foul, whistle or not.

Back to out of bounds: in your example A, you can envision the tackler right there as the runner hits OOB. You probably don't flag that because it's happening so quickly at the sideline. In B, you have a foul; that's pretty obvious. Cases in between? There really isn't an in-between. If the runner steps out, he's out and can't be hit. If the contact begins while the runner is in bounds, then it's not a foul unless there is unnecessary continuing contact out of bounds.



If I ran a slip screen in the NFL, can the O-Line go downfield before a forward pass is caught, if it is caught behind the LOS? Or does the pass have to be backwards?

Asked by Thunder23 over 9 years ago

Line can go down one yard. Beyond that is illegal. A pass behind the line is, I believe, the same - no more than one yard.

Why is a runner/receiver ruled out of bounds when/where the ball crosses the imaginary plane of the boundary. But a ball can be caught after it crosses the same plane? The first is difficult to officiate and get the spot right even in replay.

Asked by Stuart.a.tomlinson@gmail.com about 8 years ago

Your question is a little confusing but let me try.

When a runner goes out of bounds, the ball is spotted where the ball crosses the OOB line, not the runner. It's pretty straight forward and not that difficult to officiate.

I'm not quite sure what the second part of your question means, but here goes. The ball isn't out of bounds until it touches something out of bounds. A player in the field of play is not OOB. So if a player reaches out and catches a ball that has crossed the sideline - and he is still in bounds - the ball is still in play and it's a catch.