[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Based on the rest of your post, you are right. We (meaning all officials vs you) have a different standard. If you coach, you should be more aware of this, as your description is WAY off. Laying on a ball is NOT possession.

That's why we coach them not to fall on the ball, but to slide next to it while tucking it in. But if I were officiating, I'd never want to have to draw the line on how much control a player whose body is on top of and in contact with the ball has. When play continues in that situation, it hardly ever leads to a clear-cut resolution of who first controlled it. It usually winds up between bodies, often with a struggle continuing for some time.

In bounds, the ball is not dead until a player in possession of it is down. With a pile-up occurring, you will not see when that condition obtains. It will almost always occur well before you know it, because you can't see who controls the ball. So the players are wrestling for control of a ball that should be dead but isn't. You could whistle on the assumption that someone must have possession of it, but then how is your presumption any better than mine as laid out above?

Trapping a ball is NOT possession. Stuck between an elbow and a knee is NOT possession.

Where does it say that in the rules? It just says "held or controlled"; it doesn't say how.

Hands holding the ball is a decent indicator too.

Sufficient but not necessary.