[don16954]

Two weeks ago we had an overtime game. It was third and goal from the 6. Offense ran a crossing pattern and defense held prior to the pass. Our back judge threw the flag. He initially signalled interference, but then caught himself and stated that it was prior to the pass, so the correct call would be holding. The Defensive coach, who was on my side of the field, only saw the initial signal of interference. When our referee signaled defensive holding, and walks off half the distance to the goal and replay third down the defense coach goes crazy and yells,

"You can't change your mind. You called interference. You have to go with his first call" I advised him that holding was in his team's best interest, becuase holding was half the distance replay down, interfernce was half the distance, automatic first down. He replied, "So, he can't change his mind after he signals a calls." He continued to be irrate about our back judge changing the call from defensive intereference to holding, and how that was wrong. Finally, one of his players got him to quiet down because the boy comprehended the advantage before the coach did. His team, though he tried to help the other team by wanting us to give them two more downs with the interference call, held for the 2 plays and won the game 22-16.