Clock does not start

[BillyMac]

I had one of those very, very rare, but it does occasionally happen, plays yesterday. Ball goes out of bounds as I'm mentally counting down the last five seconds of a blowout game. As the ball hits out of bounds, I blow my whistle, fully expecting to hear the horn go off simultaneously with my whistle. It doesn't, so I look up to see 0:00 on the clock. I go over to the timekeeper, and ask the question that all of us, who have officiated longer than some of our partners have been alive, have learned to ask, "Is the automatic horn on?". Timekeeper replies yes, so we go back and have a throwin, that is immediately followed by the horn. We often talk about plays on this Forum that only happen "once in a million games", and some officials don't see any practical merit to these "theoretical" discussions, but things that happen "once in a million games", do happen once in a million games, and must be dealt with, by the correct rule.