I, however, like to think of myself as a professional abuser of the language
I think it is a mistake to allow any "piling on." Loose balls with people on the floor scrambling and scrapping are danger areas. If you don't get the first guy piling on, the chances of some kind of retaliation go way up.
It's easy to focus on the ball and whether it's tied up, and forget to watch how the players got to the ball. If one player goes through another, or dives on another to get to the ball, they were obviously not in equally advantageous positions.