NF Swinging Elbows Signal

[BktBallRef]

Originally posted by Self

The rule book 10-3-9, the way I am reading is a dead ball. Fighting being engagement between two or more people. The first punch thrown, if no reataliation is not a fight. So one player punches another that is flagrant personal. The retaliation is flagrant technical and any subsequent punches are fighting and are flagrant technical. That is the way I am reading it.

You're reading the wrong rule and you're reading all kinds of things into this that don't exist. Read 4-18 and 10-3-10.

4-18
Fighting is a flagrant act and can occur when the ball is dead or live. Fighting includes, but is not limited to combative acts such as:
ART. 1 An attempt to strike, punch or kick an opponent with a fist, hands, arms, legs or feet regardless of whether contact is made. Note that no retaliation is required.
ART. 2 An attempt to instigate a fight by committing an unsporting act toward an opponent that causes an opponent to retaliate by fighting.

10-3-10
A player shall not:
Be charged with fighting.

The rule has no requirement that the ball be alive or dead. It simply says it's a T to fight. It doesn't say it requires two people. It doesn't say contact has to be made. If the ball is live and I take a swing at you, I'm fighting, whether you are or not. That's a T.

10-3-9 is not fighting. If I intentionally push you during a dead ball, that's a T. But is it fighting? It could be but not necessarily.