JR,
You appear to have tunnel-vision when it comes to your reading of 4-25-2. How can I make it clear to you that the English language permits two very different readings of this rule?
The last part of that rule says "prevents an airborne player from throwing the ball or releasing it on a try."
It is not clear from a simple reading of these words whether the defender must succeed in preventing the airborne player from doing both of these actions or only one of them in order to get a held ball. We must think a bit to decide which understanding the NFHS trying to convey.
For example, if I were to bet you $100 that I could prevent you from combing your hair or brushing your teeth (assuming that you have either one
), would stealing your comb be enough to win the bet or would I have to hide your toothbrush as well?
In my second play the defender does prevent the release of a try at the apex of the jump, and the player was clearly intending to shoot when he jumped, but then the airborne player is able to bring the ball back down to his hip and release a pass before returning to the floor. So the defender has succeeded in doing one of the two things stated in 4-25-2, but not both. Whether you understand this to be a held ball, by rule, depends upon how you understand that last phrase in the rule.
I believe that the NFHS expresses their understanding of that phrase to be that the defender must only do one of those two things when they tell us at what time to make the call. If they tell us to make the call right away, then they must want a held ball to result if the defender prevents either one, since otherwise they would tell us to wait and see if the airborne player is able to accomplish the other.
The proper time to make this call is made quite clear in this rule since it says that "A held ball occurs
WHEN:" ....An opponent ... prevents...A or B.
That indicates that the held ball call should be made at the time that the try is prevented, not when the player returns to the floor. You have argued for holding the whistle until the latter happens. However, the rule does not say that the held ball occurs when the airborne player returns to the floor, does it? No, the rule and the case book specifically tell us otherwise, they say that the held ball results IMMEDIATELY even if the ball later comes loose. I must emphasize what is said and what is not said in the casebook play 4.25.2
In part (a) the airborne player returns to the floor with the ball. In part (b) the airborne player is unable to control the ball and it drops to the floor. In BOTH cases the ruling is
"A held ball results immediately," not when the player returns to the floor, but
"when airborne A1 is prevented from releasing the ball to pass or try for goal."
It can't be any clearer than that. The NFHS does not want us to hold the whistle.
[Edited by Nevadaref on Jan 21st, 2003 at 06:08 AM]