PA announces player #

skybackjudge · #1 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 12:23am

B52 is flagged for a personal foul, late hit. During penalty administration, the PA announcer says "personal foul, number 52. . . " B's coach goes balistic saying that is an unsportsmanlike on A for saying the players number. Has anyone ever heard of such? R explained to the coach that there is no such rule, to our knowledge, and that we don't listen to the PA anyway. Is there a rule on this to anyones knowledge (NFHS)?

Rich · #2 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 01:53am

Quote:

Originally posted by skybackjudge
B52 is flagged for a personal foul, late hit. During penalty administration, the PA announcer says "personal foul, number 52. . . " B's coach goes balistic saying that is an unsportsmanlike on A for saying the players number. Has anyone ever heard of such? R explained to the coach that there is no such rule, to our knowledge, and that we don't listen to the PA anyway. Is there a rule on this to anyones knowledge (NFHS)?

No. The coach needs to pay attention to the field.

ljudge · #3 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 06:11am

The only time a coach can have a complaint about that is if the home team is gaining an advantage via the PA system. We had such a situation last year. Home team is on defense and the PA announcer is giving play-by-play action as if he's a radio announcer. During the play we hear something like "He gives to Smith, IT'S A REVERSE...." You get the picture. The defense was gaining an advantage and my referee told the coach it had to stop immediately or a USC could be called against the home team. Some of you may disagree with our actions but we believe as a crew it was the appropriate thing to do.

Derock2004 · #4 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 09:53am

Quote:

Originally posted by ljudge
The only time a coach can have a complaint about that is if the home team is gaining an advantage via the PA system. We had such a situation last year. Home team is on defense and the PA announcer is giving play-by-play action as if he's a radio announcer. During the play we hear something like "He gives to Smith, IT'S A REVERSE...." You get the picture. The defense was gaining an advantage and my referee told the coach it had to stop immediately or a USC could be called against the home team. Some of you may disagree with our actions but we believe as a crew it was the appropriate thing to do.

I agree with this post. I would have handled it the same way. What about if the PA announcer is screaming DEFENSE-- DEFENSE!! I put a stop to that once also since the visiting team didn't have the luxury of a PA system to encourage their team.

JugglingReferee · #5 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 09:57am

Quote:

Originally posted by Derock2004

Quote:

Originally posted by ljudge
The only time a coach can have a complaint about that is if the home team is gaining an advantage via the PA system. We had such a situation last year. Home team is on defense and the PA announcer is giving play-by-play action as if he's a radio announcer. During the play we hear something like "He gives to Smith, IT'S A REVERSE...." You get the picture. The defense was gaining an advantage and my referee told the coach it had to stop immediately or a USC could be called against the home team. Some of you may disagree with our actions but we believe as a crew it was the appropriate thing to do.

I agree with this post. I would have handled it the same way. What about if the PA announcer is screaming DEFENSE-- DEFENSE!! I put a stop to that once also since the visiting team didn't have the luxury of a PA system to encourage their team.

It's a free country - the PA announcer can say whatever he wants.

Derock2004 · #6 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 10:13am

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JugglingReferee

Quote:

It's a free country - the PA announcer can say whatever he wants.

You don't think the announcer shouting DEFENSE over the PA system gives the home team an unfair advantage?

BktBallRef · #7 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 10:44am

Quote:

Originally posted by ljudge
The only time a coach can have a complaint about that is if the home team is gaining an advantage via the PA system. We had such a situation last year. Home team is on defense and the PA announcer is giving play-by-play action as if he's a radio announcer. During the play we hear something like "He gives to Smith, IT'S A REVERSE...." You get the picture. The defense was gaining an advantage and my referee told the coach it had to stop immediately or a USC could be called against the home team. Some of you may disagree with our actions but we believe as a crew it was the appropriate thing to do.

Agreed. We had the same thing several years ago. Put a stop to it immediately.

ref5678 · #8 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 10:55am

shouting and cheering is why we have football CHEERLEADERS not PA Announcers. Although i dont see what advantage it gives, when i played we never even listened to the pa guy.

ref18 · #9 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 11:24am

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Derock2004

Quote:

Originally posted by JugglingReferee

Quote:

It's a free country - the PA announcer can say whatever he wants.

You don't think the announcer shouting DEFENSE over the PA system gives the home team an unfair advantage?

In the Canadian Rule book, the only rule that comes even close to pertaining to a PA announcer is 1.5.5 - Crowd Noise

"The Team A captain may request the Referee to stop the game if excessive crowd noise prevents Team A from putting the ball into play. The Referee, if he agrees with the captain, may permit Team A to return to its huddle. The Referee shall allow a reasonable time, but under no circumstances shall he permit play to be delayed more than 3 times."

This really has nothing to do with the PA announcer, but it could if he was causing excessive noise while the play was about to start.

As to what or what he can't say, the officials have no jurisdiction with that (unless he starts to make cracks about the officials

)

Rich · #10 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 11:33am

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ref18

Quote:

Originally posted by Derock2004

Quote:

Originally posted by JugglingReferee

Quote:

It's a free country - the PA announcer can say whatever he wants.

You don't think the announcer shouting DEFENSE over the PA system gives the home team an unfair advantage?

In the Canadian Rule book, the only rule that comes even close to pertaining to a PA announcer is 1.5.5 - Crowd Noise

"The Team A captain may request the Referee to stop the game if excessive crowd noise prevents Team A from putting the ball into play. The Referee, if he agrees with the captain, may permit Team A to return to its huddle. The Referee shall allow a reasonable time, but under no circumstances shall he permit play to be delayed more than 3 times."

This really has nothing to do with the PA announcer, but it could if he was causing excessive noise while the play was about to start.

As to what or what he can't say, the officials have no jurisdiction with that (unless he starts to make cracks about the officials )

The officials have all the jurisdiction they need. You don't need to page through a rulebook for justification to have game management tell the guy to STFU.

KWH · #11 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 02:00pm

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JugglingReferee

Quote:

...As to what or what he can't say, the officials have no jurisdiction with that...
...It's a free country - the PA announcer can say whatever he wants.

While that may be true in Canada under 3-down football rules, it is not true here.
If the PA Announcer becomes a cheerleader, coach, an observer/critique of the officials, or is just a genuine overall pain in the a*s, then the home head coach he is warned once, (in my experiance, this course of action usually solves the problem.)
If the issue persists, an Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty is charged to the home team head coach, (in my experiance, this course of action DOES solve the problem.)

NFHS 1-1-6
The referee has authority to rule promptly, and in the spirit of good sportsmanship, on any situation not specifically covered in the rules. The referee's decisions are final in all matters pretaining to the game.

NCAA 1-1-6
All players, substitues, replaced players, coaches, trainers, cheerleaders in uniform, band members in uniform, mascots in uniform, commercial mascots, public-address announcers, audio and video system operaters, and other persons affiliated with the teams or institutions are subject to the rules and shall be goverened by the decision of the officials. Affiliated persons are those authorized within the team area.

"And that's about all I have to say about that!!!" - Forrest Gump

JugglingReferee · #12 (**permalink**) Sat Sep 04, 2004, 04:26pm

To All: I was actually kidding... I wanted to see what kind of response I would get.

Julian: good points though about not having a specific rule to cover the PA guy. However, it can be covered under the elastic judgement rule, 2.3.1. Coincidentally, the same rule in Fed bball is 2.3.

Bob M. · #13 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 07, 2004, 08:48am

REPLY: The big problem with some (many?) HS public address announcers is that they attempt to emulate the on-air game announcers and forget exactly what it is they should be using the microphone for.

mcrowder · #14 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 07, 2004, 09:39am

We removed 2 separate PA guys for doing exactly that kind of play-by-play. The PA can say whatever he wants after the play ends ... I think it's cheesy for them to oversell for 1 team (WHAT A PLAY by John Jones!!!) and not the other, but I'm not going to stop them... But we do ask them to not call play-by-play during the play itself or to lead cheers. (And we had the "IT'S a REVERSE!!!! occurence 2 years ago as well).

WyMike · #15 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 07, 2004, 10:07am

A similar situation arose last night at our officials meeting... A discussion arose concerning a game where the opposing coach complained the band was playing loudly during their possesions and A was having a difficult time hearing audibles and counts.

R didn't do anything but stayed aware and noticed the band did indeed go quiet during home teams possesion. None of the crews, some with 25 years experience, had never heard of a coach complain in this manner.

Discussion ensued as to whether the NFHS rules addressed this specifically. I piped up, being the new guy and told them about this PA thread which was similar.

A lot of arguing, err, debating was had by all except me. (I'm still to new to be arguing with 25 years of experience!)

Isn't this an officials *overall* call as it lends an advantage to one team over another?