Quote:
Originally Posted by stegenref
So I had my first invalid fair catch signal Friday night, but I think I might have screwed it up. I'm posting it here for discussion / advice...please no flaming / bashing.
R1 is in a position to field a punt. As the ball is in flight, I see his two hands come up in front of his chest and kind of swipe across his chest...almost like he was brushing some crumbs off the front of his jersey. I remember thinking, "Was that supposed to be a fair catch signal?" and thinking, "No way, that was way too subtle to be considered a signal." Of course I only had a milli-second to think that because then he caught the ball and a horde of defenders came running up on him. Well evidently he thought he gave a good signal, because he made no attempt at a return and just casually turned toward me and started walking toward me to hand me the ball. All the defenders stopped and were standing right in front of him. I never blew my whistle, because in my mind I was thinking, "That's a live ball, why is no one tackling him". Everyone turned and looked at me, and as soon as the defenders realized I hadn't blown the whistle, they turned back and started tackling the kid. I realized then that I'd better kill the play or that kid was going to get hurt, so I blew my whistle dead and gave R the ball at that spot.
R1 came up to me after the play and was like, "Why'd you let them hit me, I gave a fair catch signal!". I told him, "No you didn't, a fair catch signal is one arm extended above the head, waving back and forth".
Looking back on it, and after researching it, I think maybe that as soon as I realized that R1 had thought he'd given a fair catch signal, I should've blown it dead for his protection and thrown a flag on him for an invalid fair catch signal.
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How sad is that? New people need to ask us NOT to give them grief - everyone, take the hint and get over yourselves (me included).
I agree with your looking back assessment. I'm not sure where we draw the line with the arm movement R does prior to catching the ball to try and determine if he is catching the ball or giving an invalid signal, but we probably need to err on the side of safety. If you're wrong, it only costs R 5 yards - if you're right, you might be saving R1 from getting blown up.