[JFM43]

The other team lines up to punt. All of their line is set for one full second in a two point stance. Simultaneously, all seven linemen scream "GO" and shift rapidly into a three point stance. No strategical shift like from tight to wide or anything like that. It was a predisigned shift that had as its only purpose to simulate the snap and draw us offisides. My white cap told me that since they do it everytime it is OK. Am I just way off here??? I thought any shift by the offense that simulated the snap and drew the defense into the neutral zone was a foul on the offense???

The referee is incorrect. You are incorrect. This is legal, period.

Shifting into a 3-point stance is what linemen do at the start of a snap cadence. It does not simulate action at the snap and is not designed to cause the defense to encroach. How fast they go into the stance is irrelevant. Whether they do it the same way every time or different every time is irrelevant. If the defensive coaches review tapes of their opponents and conduct practices accordingly, this is a non-issue.

Lastly, we run the veer. I have told the referees for two straight weeks to blow a long slow whistle and make sure the quarterback doesn't have the ball before blowing the play dead when the full back is tackled. Two weeks in a row, the same umpire, (who will be on my black list next week.) has blown an inadvertant whistle on TOUCHDOWNS! Last week it was a fifty yard touchdown, no one in the Northern Hemisphere knew my qb still had the ball, he was thirty yards past everyone as the late lazy whistle sounded as my fullback got tackled. Tonight it was around a forty yard mistake in the first quarter of a drive that fissled later. What can I do? If I execute perfectly it costs me because the refs cannot keep up. What should I do?

When an inadvertant whistle sounds the ball is dead, regardless of whether it's short and low or long and loud. There are no what ifs to play, all you can do is take whichever option you (well, actually your captain) think is best. You can either take the couple yards gained by then (probably about 5 yards, maybe 8 or 10 if he's fast or the D missed the first tackle) with the down counting or you can replay the down from the previous spot.

If the same official is committing the Cardinal Sin on the same play twice in his career, he needs to consider retirement and his association's training programs need major overhauls (in both rules and mechanics, based on some other situations you've described)--but telling him that yourself probably wouldn't be the prudent thing to do.

[Edited by JFM43 on Oct 15th, 2001 at 02:35 PM]