“Get Away Signal”

[surehands]

B give a get away signal on a punt ball and then his teammate picks it up and returns the ball.
What is the Federation (high School) ruling on this play. Anything in the Fed rule book?

[HLin NC]

If its close enough to a FC signal that the covering official believes it to be invalid then it a foul. There is no such thing as a get away signal in NFHS nor is there a case play.

[JRutledge]

It is not illegal to give a signal to tell others to "get away." It is only a NCAA interpretation to kill the play after such a signal is given. You might have states that want this to be interpreted that way, but not from the NF level at this time.

The only thing we can do is consider this an invalid signal and penalize the action.

Peace

[Texas Aggie]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

It is not illegal to give a signal to tell others to "get away." It is only a NCAA interpretation to kill the play after such a signal is given. You might have states that want this to be interpreted that way, but not from the NF level at this time.

The only thing we can do is consider this an invalid signal and penalize the action.

Peace

The NCAA rule on invalid fair catch signals is pretty clear that "any waving signal" by a Team B player on a kick is an invalid signal and thus means the play is shut down after Team B possession. I wouldn't call this simply an interpretation, though I may be reading too much into what you said.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

The NCAA rule on invalid fair catch signals is pretty clear that "any waving signal" by a Team B player on a kick is an invalid signal and thus means the play is shut down after Team B possession. I wouldn't call this simply an interpretation, though I may be reading too much into what you said.

Yeah, you are reading too much into what I said because there is no such directive from the NF. The rules are basically the same but at least by all accounts are handled very differently. There is never been an interpretation from the NF directly that has said we kill a "get away" signal as an invalid signal. Also NCAA does not make an invalid signal anymore a penalty. An invalid signal in NF rules is a penalty.

Peace

[ajmc]

Perhaps NFHS considers this a teaching opportunity, to hopefully reduce/eliminate recurrence at higher levels.