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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ed Hickland
Never, not ever, take the ball and move it to the wingman.
My watchphrase is selling the call. A coach can really believe you are doing him right if you don't handle the ball. Because if you do and the result is a fraction of an inch, can you truly say that you did not move it toward one of the goals?
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Ed,
I disagree about NOT moving the ball to the wingman. Only the wings are going to have forward progress. I'm sure that you won't disagree with that.
If I understand your logic for not getting the ball to the wings, you are trying to manage the coaches perception that if you move the ball from where it lies, they think that your crew moved it forward or back an inch. (They probably will.)
Where I find this faulty is that the spot where the ball lies matters zero. In fact, I would tell my U to get the ball to the wing, don't put it down unless the wings don't have a spot (unlikely). The true dead ball spot is at the covering wing man's toe! So, if a coach gives me grief about moving the ball, I explain the basics of officiating, that the wing guys are counted on to mark forward progress accurately, not the R, not the U, not the BJ.
Not sure how others do it, but my vote is to keep forward progress on the sidelines and make the wings responsible for the placement on close plays.
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