[DJ]

We had a play earlier in the year where on a short yardage play at the goal line a mass of about a dozen people were moving toward the goal line and all of a sudden out comes an opponent who has stolen the ball and he starts running down the field. At about the ten yard line I hear a weak whistle(I am the white hat) and then mirror the whistle to kill the play. Neither wing had a prayer of a chance of seeing the ball with the mass of bodies moving toward the goal line and neither wing knew where the ball was until the kid came running out of there with the ball going the other way towards a possible touchdown. The umpire in this case killed the play because the wing had actually started running down the field to officiate the stolen ball. The umpire was 100% sure that the kid had crossed the goal line in possesion of the ball. I like the idea of the thumbs up but in this case the wing was running down the field with the stolen ball carrier officiating the play so the thumbs up would have been redundant unless he turned completely around and signal the opposite wing. I also told the umpire that it was not a good time for a weak whistle and we had a good chuckle about that after the game!! We sold our call and went on to the extra point. We did the best we could under the conditions and did not recieve any flack except for a few fans who were just being fans! The umpire should never but....!