Annual NF rule change thread

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

JR, I have to say, I played during the Reagan and Bush (41) years, and I would do it also. I can't say how often it worked, and I can remember times it didn't work; but I also remember it worked occasionally. When I played, we still raised our hands out of respect when called for a foul. Also, I can't confirm nor deny that there may have been officials in my small town enforcing a rule that no longer existed.

And you can do it today and it might work also. But it wouldn't and didn't work when the mandatory raising-the-hand rule was in effect because every single foul was bird-dogged. That's when bird-dogging started as a mechanic. The mechanics issued stated that we had to go right up to every single player that we called a foul on before they raised a hand, point at them and hold that point until they raised their hand. We were pointing and going to the player as we called the foul, not after we called the foul. That's why another player raising their hand wouldn't come into play.

We may have called a foul on the wrong player occasionally, but if we did it had absolutely nothing to do with any other player raising their hand. It was just a mistake.