[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

The blood rule timeout and the problems that can surface with the new NFHS rule (which is identical to the current NCAA Men's/Women's rule) has been discussed in an earlier thread.

And once again I propose that both the NFHS and the NCAA just do away with the timeout rule. The easiest and fairest way to handle the blood problem is for the player involved to leave the game until the next opportunity to return to the game.

I know that people will say: How can you take a team's star player out of the game when the game is on the line and only seconds left on the clock? That argument does not hold water. Most people who read this forum know that I officiate between 350 and 400 basketball games a year. I would guess that I have only two or three blood rule situations a year. And I believe that every official who reads this forum were to track the number of blood rule situations that they have per year, the results would be similar to mine. The fact is that blood rule situations are very rare and to put complicated rules into the game to cover a very rare situation is absolute nonsense.

MTD, Sr.