Rule changes?

[cmathews]

Originally posted by Bob M.
REPLY: No new rule book wording yet, so it's tough to comment. But some of my thoughts:

Coach allowed to request timeout -- Previously, if his players couldn't hear him screaming for a TO, they would get the grief. Now, if you don't hear him, you're going to get the grief! And, if you as a wing official hear the call, you need to turn away from the action to verify that it is indeed the head coach before you grant the TO. If that occurs right when the snap is imminent, you might miss something.

We have this in basketball too, and I handle it this way. If you hear the request when it would be appropriate to grant it, then turn to verify that the head coach is who requested it, grant it because the "request" came when it was appropriate, so technically nothing happened because there was a time out before the play.