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Originally Posted by Nevadaref
However, the question under discussion as posed by just another ref which you sent to Howard was specifically written in the narrow sense (It is obvious that the player's action is the start of a dribble.) as is the above case play.
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I just don't agree that it's as obvious in the play under discussion as it is in the case play. I also don't agree that the wording is clearly intended to cover any release of the ball toward the floor as a dribble. I also don't agree that Howard was discussing the general sense. I sent him a specific play. He answered it specifically. He's a pretty smart guy, and he knows the difference between specific and general.
Jurassic, I'm not so sure this is nonsense. I know a lot of the stuff on this thread is worthless, but this discussion is interesting. It points out that we can't rely on what seems like common sense. What seems so obvious to you and me is as clear as mud to Nevada and JAR, and other rules are equally ambiguous.
Officials in all sports need to learn to understand and follow the principles of submission (to how the rules tell us to call the game) and also of adaptation (to how things are in our areas). (Hmmm... I smell article...) It's possible that in JAR's association everyone calls things this way. Even if it's the only county in all of the Western Hemisphere that interprets it this way, it is how JAR should call it. Of course, he shouldn't be telling us that we're all wrong and he's right.
But it is interesting to look closely at the rules, to see the various interpretations of the various words, and to try to come to some agreement with each other about how to call the play. Words are the only tools we have, yet they can be so difficult. I'm intrigued.