How do you cover this?

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

If the post defender "has your attention" and then fouls the offensive post player, why would you not have a whistle and a foul? Once your L went out on the ball, you are responsible for the post play. Blow your whistle and make the foul call.

This is a very good question. There are two reasons I didn't have a whistle, and why I'm still questioning whether I should have a whistle on this.

First, the contact I considered a foul happened at the end of the play. By then my partner was turning into the play and had an immediate whistle. One of the basic tenets I subscribe to for calling in my secondary is: be right, be needed, be late. So my initial reaction is to hold my whistle for half a beat so my partner has first crack at it (since it's his primary). I didn't discover that he had something other than the foul until he was signalling the travel.

Second, the way the play unfolded. I would have had to make a call from trail on a play that was perceived to be right in front of my partner. I would be perceived to be "overruling" my partner. Right or wrong, that's a very slippery slope. And most of the folks I've asked locally about this play have basically said that, in their opinion, you have to let your partner live or die with his call because of this.