In many locations throughout the NF books, it is stated that referees should be made aware of "trick plays" during the pre-game conference. What if they don't? Has anyone ever had a "trick play" run that they weren't made aware of? I guess my question is whether disclosing the plays is a requirement or just a recommendation for coaches to follow.

I beleive that there is an illegal procedure penalty for a planned loose ball play if the officials are not told about it. other than that I think it is just a nice gesture to help officials prepare better for the play (not anticipate :)).

[Edited by BigGref on Jun 14th, 2004 at 02:08 PM]

REPLY: We always ask the coach in the pre-game if he plans on using any <u><b>unusual</b></u> plays during the game. We intentionally do not use the word "trick." We ask him so that we can be aware of anything his team might do out of the ordinary. We also want to inform him if anything he has planned might violate the provisions of 9-6-4c (using a player, sub, or replaced player to deceive the opponent) or which might violate the principles espoused in the Case Book play 9.9.3 Situation B ("Where's the tee?" play). The coach is under no obligation to reveal anyhting to us at this time. However, as BigGref points out, he must tell us of any planned loose ball plays in the vicinity of the snapper prior to the snap.

<b>NF 7-2-8:</b><i> Any Team A player on his line of scrimmage may not advance a planned loose ball in the vicinity of the snapper unless the referee is notified before the snap that the play will be run during that down.</i>

Sometimes asking doesn't help. I once had a coach tell us that he wasn't running anything unusual and then tried to run his version of the "we've got the wrong ball" play on his first play from scrimmage. Seems he ran it a couple of times earlier in th season and nobody flagged it. Of course he was just a little upset when I flagged him for it.

It's the guy that tells you no that is most likely to run something relly weird. Coaches lie to you.

We had one coach back in CNY who always seemed to have some sort of tricky formation or play, nothing illegal, but
he always showed us what was going to happen so that
we would be less likely to throw a flag. I "loved" it when he would come into our locker room before the game with clipboard and diagrams in hand. Sure beats those coaches who tell you they have nothing special-- then on
the first play run some tricky hidden ball double reverse
end around play or something whacky like that !!
Coaches lie ?? You're trying to be funny- right ?