Axiom to use?

[Uncle Ernie]

Hi Fellas,

I hope this makes sense...sorry for the long post

I normally try not to buy into phrases in which we say, "...everytime this happens...," or "...we do this in all instances..." The reason is becaues there is usually an exception somewhere that fouls it all up.

However, I may have come up with one. I wanted to put it out here and see if someone can shoot holes in it. This is for NFHS only. It has to do with trying to keep enforcement distances correct. Being an idiot, I always get messed up on whether it is 10 or 15 yards. That being said, here is what I came up with...

"...any foul that involves something below the waist is always 15 yards..."

For example - Blocking below the waist, chop blocks, clipping, illegal kicking, tripping are the ones I came up with and they all involve something below the waist.

What do you guys think?? Good way to remember distance enforcement for people??

[JMN]

Sounds good to me, Unc. I'll try to think of exceptions.

Does that include a winning coach that kisses your #ss? Last I checked, that's below the waist!

[Uncle Ernie]

Originally posted by JMN
Sounds good to me, Unc. I'll try to think of exceptions.

Does that include a winning coach that kisses your #ss? Last I checked, that's below the waist!

Now that is hysterical...

[Snake~eyes]

I recommend you memorize the six 10 yard penalties. This helps me very well.

[MD Longhorn]

I agree. There are a very limited number of 10-yard penalties - memorize those. If the penalty is not 10-yards, it's usually fairly obvious whether it's a 5 or a 15, just from intuition.

(Then again, I'll never understand why illegal participation (the kind where you accidentally start the play with 12) is 15 yards if you caught it after the snap, and 5 if you caught it before. Seems very odd - but the rest of the 15's make sense).

[Uncle Ernie]

Yeah, I like the 10 yard idea too.

This can be used in dealing with a situation last night, when an offical was talked into a 5 yard illegal kick and a 10 block below the waist.

[Mike Simonds]

I noticed that any illegal contact below the waist is a 15 yard penalty. This is one that I use all the time.

Have not heard about the penalty for illegal contact by winning coaches. I would have to classify this as unsportsmanlike conduct by the coach, but since this is after the end of regulation and overtime play you would have to report this to the proper higher league authorities because your jurisdiction ended with the referee's declaration that the game is finished.

In our association we have a referee that once assessed a 5 yard running into the passer foul. Guess it did not meet his criteria for roughing the passer! Too bad it did not meet any criteria found in the rule-book!

[BktBallRef]

Agree with the 10 yard advocates. It's easier to remember than any blocking foul that includes using the hands is a 10 yard foul.

[Forksref]

This year I took all of the fouls listed on page 77 and put them into a spread sheet, then sorted them by alphabet, so they would be scrambled (not all 5's together, etc) Then I printed it out. At least several times a week early in the season, I went through the list, asking myself, what is the penalty and what is the signal? There are something like 50 fouls listed. After about a week of doing it daily, I had it memorized very well. Practice Practice Practice!

After having it down, I went out on the field this year a lot more confident. My first white-hat game this year, my backjudge, who is a long-time friend and used to be a white-hat, called an invalid fair catch signal. I immediately gave the correct signal. Incidentally, it was the first and only PSK enforcement of the year. At half-time I challenged him to look it up and see if I was correct. He was pleasantly surprised. It helped my credibility. When the white-hat knows what he is doing, the whole crew is more confident.

Practice Practice Practice - no gimmicks