There appears no doubt that an inadvertent whistle was blown at the end of OT in the Phi-GB game on Sunday. It apparently was blown by someone BEFORE THE SNAP under the goal post (probably the FJ) when a GB player tried to call a second consecutive timeout.

Here is my question. Because the whistle came before the snap, it was an inadvertent during a dead ball period. The play had not yet begun. The NFL has a rule to specifically deal with inadvertent whistles during a play, but I can't seem to find one dealing with such situations during dead ball periods. I can't find such a rule in the NFHS rules either.

My best guess is that the general rule that an inadvertent whistle results in a dead ball applies during the dead ball period. Thus, it would be treated like a dead ball fould. The R would blow his whistle and reset the play clock.

Is that right??

That is how I understand it for NF rules.

My guess is that is would be pretty much the same at the PRO level although I really have no idea.

The pros used to have a rule that successive timeouts resulted in a delay of game penalty being assessed but I believe it has been removed for quite some time now.

I don't see the issue. What are you actually concerned with? Seems to me you'd simply reset after the whistle just like any other stoppage of play.