Successive Timeouts

[walt]

What an interesting question and a situation I hope I never encounter. Rule 4-42-2 states that a successive time out is one which is granted to either team before the clock is started following the previous time out. Rule 5-12-1 last sentence states that unused time-outs accumulate and may be used at any time. Rule 5-12-3 clarifies that a little bit by stating that successive time outs shall not be granted after the expiration of playing time for the fourth quarter or any extra period. Case book 5-11-3A in the ruling states that successive time outs may be granted in all situations except after time has expired in the fourth quarter or any extra period. I found nothing except time expiring in the fourth quarter or any extra period that would prevent a coach from using all of his time outs in a row if he/she wanted to. I guess if you believe that the coach is doing this purposely in order to turn the game into "an actionless contest", I guess you could warn him/her by saying that they are violating Rule 10-1-5 but you better be absolutely sure that he/she is not coaching in the huddle during the timeouts. We discussed this at a Board meeting once and there were some in our Board that felt strongly that only one successive time-out could be charged. Others felt that if a coach was stupid enough to burn all of the timeouts at once, let 'em. I'll be very interested to see if any one here comes up with something else but I couldn't find it!!!