Airborne shooter - Held ball

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by BigJoe
JR,

What I am saying is if the defender has his hand on the ball to prevent it from being released at the start of the shot, I am calling a held ball. If he releases it from his hip on his way down is irrelevant because the whistle has already blown. That is the point of immediately calling the held ball. I don't think you can hold your whistle in this situation under the rules.

Under the rules,you HAVE to hold your whistle to see if the the player gets the shot off.How can you possibly call a held ball for a defensive player preventing the shooter from releasing the ball on a try,as per R4-25-2,when the shooter actually DOES release the ball? The bottom line is that if the defensive player did NOT prevent the shooter from releasing the ball on a try. Rule 4-25 therefore IS NOT applicable and you CAN'T use it as justification for calling a held ball.

Big Joe,you have nothing in the rules anywhere to justify your calling a held ball.You can't use Casebook play 4.25.2 either.That one isn't applicable because B1 actually prevented A1 from releasing a try in it. What you are trying to call a held ball is detailed in Casebook play 4.43.3SitA(b) as being legal and is not a held ball.



[Edited by Jurassic Referee on Jan 19th, 2003 at 11:11 AM]