Working the wing last night. Screen pass set up to my side. We'd had a major problem with this team holding on the screen passes all night, so I was concentrating on them. Three of them were across the line (normal), and when the ball is thrown I'm looking at them. The ball zips past me at my ankles (I'm right on the line at this point) incomplete. I whistle and signal incomplete and watch for a second for late hits, etc, then turn for the ball.

The back of my brain starts tickling --- ineligible downfield? Was that ball still in the air when it passed me? Was it tipped? About 2 seconds later the same thing dawns on the coaches on my side... "Ineligible!!! Ineligible!!!" (Side note - I HATE dropping the hanky after a coach asks for one, as a matter of principle).

I went in, asked R if the ball was tipped, and asked U (who had the best angle) if the ball landed across the line. After getting the right answers, I tell R I have ineligibles downfield and drop the flag.

How would you have handled? I KNOW I should have dropped the flag immediately ... but having failed in that - do you drop it when first realized you may have missed it? When the coaches started yelling? Or when I did - after confirming the facts?

Sounds like you did the right thing to me. You asked for the information you needed and got it. Nice job!!

Sounds like you got it right. I find that the ineligible call is the one I probably miss the most.

Can't tell from your description, but if the ball was anywhere close to being questionable as far as if it reached the line, I'm going to call it and SELL it as incomplete. Especially since it didn't create an advantage for the offense.

My only question is if he U knew the ball crossed the line, then why didn't he have a flag for ineligibles downfield?

Sounds good to me.
 

Good job on communicating with your crew. The only thing I can think of is that some associations prefer you to drop your flag first and then come in to discuss it. The flag can always be waved-off.

I know what you are saying about the coaches: I don't want their help in calling a foul especially if I know its a foul.

But in your case those shallow screen passes can be so tricky to call. The umpire often cannot get right up to the line because the linemen are crowding it. And the receiver often catches the pass within 1 or 2 yards behind the line so its good to have the head linesman stay home and watch the line if he reads screen pass (at least thats what our 5 man mechanics wants us to do). Then you have at least 2 officials watching the screen passes.

U didn't have the chance to get to the line. This screen they ran happened pretty quickly and included playaction. I wish I'd dropped immediately and then discussed... but as I said the thought actually took a couple of seconds to percolate in my thick cold-addled head last night.

42 degrees last night. Yes - I know - that's nothing to most of you... but I don't even OWN longsleeves or a jacket. It rarely gets that low here.

Does that mean you had to buy the postgame consumables, since you made your entire crew go short sleeves? :)

Actually, we ended up not matching last night. They changed the gametime on us at the last minute, so most of us had to simply go with what we had with us. We were quite a group - 2 in jackets, 2 in longsleeves, and me in short sleeves. I need to go ahead and buy that longsleeve shirt for the 3 or 4 games I need it.