[jjrye22]

Originally posted by The Roamin' Umpire

Sounds like seven-man - and possibly six-man - mechanics (at least as practiced by the officials at the local D-IAA college). HL and LJ are back with R at the receivers' goal line.

Sorry, yes - 7 man mechanics. It was the equivalant of a multi-state tournament, with 15 teams, and refs from 10 different states. We had enough people to have 7 man crews for each of the games.


I am more interested as to what I should have done with the other play...
My problem is not really that the U blow the play dead - He felt I am sure that he was protecting the players. I'm more interested in the player being stopped without having touched the ground with anything but his feet. I have seen a few videos from rulebooks.com where the runner rolls over the pile and is not considered down. The rulebooks says the play is dead 'when a runner is so held that his forward progress is stopped' or 'When any part of the runner s body, except his hand or foot, touches the ground'

What I essentially saw was the runner fall forward, onto another player, bounce off and continue running. If the other player had not been there the runner would have fell to the ground and the play would have been dead, but since he didn't contact the ground, should I have called it dead?

I guess it would be the same with a pile up on short yardage. The ball carrier makes a jump and lands on the pile. Is it dead when he lands? Is he allowed to continue crawling forward over the pile?

Thanks,

James