POP WARNER Question

[sm_bbcoach]

POP WARNER RULES:
According to the slaughter rule: the clock becomes a running clock, and the team up by more than 28 pts, must run the ball inside tackles only., No sweeps or passing.

My question: is there any point that anyone knows of (not in the rule book) if a team is up say, 28-0 the slughter rule begins. At 4:03 left in 4th Q, the score is now 28-27. Does the game revert back to normal play or does the team up 28+ points just have to try and hold on?
Thanks.

[nvfoa15]

This is a local rule and as such you must check with the local league about how to enforce the "slaughter rule."

[BktBallRef]

Once the deficit is less than the set amount of points, regular play resumes. In this case, at 28-2, the team that's ahead can resume normal play calling.

[PSU213]

Doesn't "mercy rule" or "running clock rule" sound a bit more classy than "slaughter rule?" I'm hoping this is your terminology, not the league's.

[Snake~eyes]

lol... well we call it the slaughter rule when talking to eachother. We don't call it that publicly or anything like that. When we go to a coach, we say "Coach we're going into Modified Competition Rules, you get the ball on the 40".. also known as MCR.

[sm_bbcoach]

Originally posted by PSU213
Doesn't "mercy rule" or "running clock rule" sound a bit more classy than "slaughter rule?" I'm hoping this is your terminology, not the league's.

I have seen the terminology use as lopsided score. But, coaches, players, league commish., all use the "slaughter Rule" Until I looked it up on PW web site (last game of season last year, thatis all I knew it as.

[Patsfan2431]

Pop Warner National rules state that the Mercy rule begins when a team is winning by 28 points or more. The winning team may not pass or run outside the tackles. The clock runs except on timeouts and change of possesions. Now heres where it gets localized. The national rules state the clock will NEVER stop running regardless of the score. Although i have officiated in leagues where the clock returns to normal when the score returns to within 14 points. Now heres where it gets really hairy! Some leagues force the winning team to remove 4 offensive starters (the losing teams coach gets to pick). Also, if the winning team intercepts the ball, the play is immed. blown dead. When in doubt of the rules, follow the national rules or ask the president of the league (usually at the field) if their league deviates from the national rules.

[sm_bbcoach]

Originally posted by Patsfan2431
Pop Warner National rules state that the Mercy rule begins when a team is winning by 28 points or more. The winning team may not pass or run outside the tackles. The clock runs except on timeouts and change of possesions. Now heres where it gets localized. The national rules state the clock will NEVER stop running regardless of the score. Although i have officiated in leagues where the clock returns to normal when the score returns to within 14 points. Now heres where it gets really hairy! Some leagues force the winning team to remove 4 offensive starters (the losing teams coach gets to pick). Also, if the winning team intercepts the ball, the play is immed. blown dead. When in doubt of the rules, follow the national rules or ask the president of the league (usually at the field) if their league deviates from the national rules.

Patsfan2431-
You would be amazed that coaches do not know that the rule was changed from 2 years ago. I had a league pres. 2 Sundays ago tell me I di dnot know the rules. That the score needs to be 25, and that the ball goes from the 50, ect.... Some leagues have no idea that there is this rule. In NW IN, we play by pretty much what you said, except that the coach winning by 28 is expected to change his players around (ie line men now are backs and recievers, ect...) runs only through the middle, dead ball on turnovers. Is there a national point limit where it reverts back to "normal rules"? I had someone tell me it was 10 points, but the clock willNEVER go back.
Any thoughts? The 2 pres. of leagues playing last Sunday came to me together and asked me this question. So, they do not know (in fact one did not know the rule about running only in between tackles).

[stevegarbs]

I recently worked an official Pop Warner league game two weeks ago with two other officials who were also new to it. We hit the 28-point margin in the first game, but very late. At the time we were simply told "running clock until it gets below 28 point difference, no passing, run between the tackles."

In a later game we hit the differential again and there was an interception returned for a TD by the winning team, on the last play of the game. After the game one of the ADs came to us and explained that under their rules the winning team (in the mercy situation) is not allowed to return fumbles or INTs. Also any violation of the run inside the tackle rule was a five yard penalty (we had assessed a 15-yard UC). Also no kickoffs, losing team gets the ball first and ten from the 50.

In general, I like the rule very much.

[JMN]

In our youth football league, once the 28 point differential is reached, we have a running clock. The subsequent score has no effect on changing from a running clock back to a regular clock. I've never seen the score come close to a tie after declaring the running clock.