3 Man Lead Question

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Freddy

"When in Nome, do what the Nomans do." Here in the Alaska-like conditions of the area across the lake from Rut some crews include in the pregame the question, "Are you going to be crashing with an open hand, or with thumbs up?"
With the "crash with the open hand" option upon an apparent held ball situation, one official will whistle, close in with an open hand to stop the clock just prior to giving the thumbs up, then take a split second to glance at a partner to see if he also has a whistle. This allows the brief opportunity to see if your partner, having a better view of the play, is coming in with a fist in the air. If so, the fist usually wins and the open hand is lowered to yield to his call. If, as sometimes happens when two players firmly grasp the ball and one yanks the other across his/her body, the held ball caused the foul, then a brief caucus clarifies that and they go with the held ball.

You Nomans do realize that you aren't using proper NFHS signals or mechanics, I hope, when you do that. If you look at the correct signal for a jump/held ball...#3 on the chart in the rulebook...you'll notice that the explanation under that signal says "stop clock for jump/held ball." Iow, you're already stopping the clock with signal #3 and the open-hand stop-clock signal ( #2) is never needed for any held ball. It's extraneous.

I'm not saying that isn't a good local mechanic as long as everybody knows it's a local mechanic only. I couldn't really care less about the signal you use. Getting the call right is the important thing.

A better idea though imo in situations like this is to just NOT whistle or signal at all until you're absolutely sure it was either a foul or a held ball. Then make the appropriate call. Doo-doo does happen though. That's why we have blarges. And if we do end up with a foul and a held ball called on the play, well, the officials just have to get together and decide which occurred first.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

You Nomans do realize that you aren't using proper NFHS signals or mechanics, I hope, when you do that. If you look at the correct signal for a jump/held ball...#3 on the chart in the rulebook...you'll notice that the explanation under that signal says "stop clock for jump/held ball." Iow, you're already stopping the clock with signal #3 and the open-hand stop-clock signal ( #2) is never needed for any held ball. It's extraneous.

I'm not saying that isn't a good local mechanic as long as everybody knows it's a local mechanic only. I couldn't really care less about the signal you use. Getting the call right is the important thing.

I agree with all stated. And it was something that took a game or so to get accustomed to. It was rationalized to me that there's nothing out of order to stop the clock with an open hand then quickly signal the held ball as the reason for stopping the clock as a seperate gesture. That there were actually two non-foul signals to stop the clock, the upraised open hand and the thumbs up. I won't say that most around here do it, but locally it is especially common amongst the more quality officials. I by no means do it when anyone else on the crew isn't doing it. That lack of uniformity indeed makes it stand out as something too individualistic.