[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by phansen

Did anyone else take exception to the article in the Sept issue of Referee magazine concerning not calling holding penalties away from the point of attack. Although there is a little merit to their argument of keeping the game moving and not having a flag fest, I still disagree with them for high school football, and this is why

Here are some questions that arise if this philosophy is undertaken. What do you tell the defensive lineman that is being held, and you witnessed being held when he complains to you? “You couldn’t make that play anyway”. Nothing will incite a vigilante attitude more than telling a defensive player this. Since you aren’t going to call anything away from the play anyway, he will want to institute his own form of football justice which I contend will lead to rough play and unsporting behavior later in the game which you will have to call.

A distinction needs to be kept between illegal use of hands, which is there only for tactical reasons, and types of contact that are illegal for the sake of safety or good sportsmanship, which is why the former can be ignored if it doesn't affect play, while the latter must be policed for the players' own good.

And how is the official who doesn’t make this holding call suppose to know that the runner isn’t running a reverse, or a cutback, or reversing his field where that backside defensive player could influence the play.

You need to be able to throw the flag and then pick it up if it becomes clear the play wasn't affected. Of course you should always make the most favorable assumption, if there was the slightest chance the held player could've affected the play, running it down from behind, or whatever. Usually the only times you could be sure was when the ball was really remote enough from where the illegal use of hands took place and the ball became dead soon enough after, that you wouldn't even have to drop the flag.

For instance, you detect holding by either team, even fairly close to the ball, occur just as the runner is falling to his knees. It wasn't unsafe, it couldn't possibly have affected the dead ball spot, and there was no loose ball to recover. Why is a penalty any improvement to the game compared to a warning in that situation?

Lastly, do you think that coaches will pick up on this philosophy? So they can teach their kids all week that they will run plays away from the oppositions star defensive end, oh and by the way, grab hold of him because the refs won’t call it anyway.

I don't see any reason for that, because there doesn't seem to be any gain to it. If it was being done to taunt the opposition, couldn't you flag that as deliberately hitting somebody obviously out of play?

Robert