[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by bob jenkins

6.3.1D (last year's reference) -- note that it says "Not after the ball touches an inbounds player." -- implying that before the ball touches an inbounds player, the potential mistake can be rectified (trying to avoid using the words "error" and "correctable" since this isn't part of 2-10).

Bob - I see your point, but I think that's a real stretch to use that case. I do admit it implies that you could give the ball back to a team before the ball is touched by anyone on the court in certain circumstances, but the case refers to giving an AP throwin to the wrong team and then trying to correct it quickly and I'm not sure you should use that case when it is clear under the rule what you should do in the case denoted in this thread.

Think of it this way. What if, during play, A1 takes a shot. The ball hits the backboard and, during the long rebound, an official blows his whistle because he thinks team B has too many men on the court when they really don't (yeah - I know, that's incredibly unlikely, but bear with me). You now have an inadvertant whistle during a time of no team control. Would you give the ball to team A just because they were the last team to have touched it? Of course not. You would go to the AP.

I think that's a closer analogy to the case in this thread than the one you cite because if the ball is rolling on the floor, it's anyone's ball, and the team that rolled it in has no more right to it than the other team at that point, unlike the "right" you would have if it was your AP throwin and the official gave it to the other team instead.

I do think it's unfortunate that NF rules sometimes allow a team to get an advantage due to an official's mistake, but until they make a blanket rule to let us override whenever that happens due to trying to apply the equity principle, that's the way it goes.