Two footballs on field, two TDs, different teams

[bigwes68]

Saw this one on a Tennessee high school discussion board, thought I'd share it.

2nd & 2, B's 35. Sweep comes left toward A's sideline, there is a fumble and all of a sudden, there are two loose footballs on the field. A picks one up, goes untouched into B's end zone for an apparent TD, B picks up the other one and goes untouched into A's end zone for an apparent TD. The balls are identical; it is impossible to tell which was the one in play during the down.

After a long discussion, A is flagged for sideline interference and both TDs are nullified.

Thoughts? Anyone ever heard of anything like this happening, ever?

[Edited by bigwes68 on Sep 20th, 2004 at 01:06 PM]

[SouthGARef]

"Pack up and go home"

Seriously, if something like that happens--and nobody saw where the second ball came from--you have to just chalk up common sense.

Since there's nothing in the rules for this situation, I'd replay the down.

[Snake~eyes]

Originally posted by SouthGARef
Since there's nothing in the rules for this situation, I'd replay the down.

Exactly what I was going to say. Even if you could look closely and differentiate between the balls I still think you have to replay the down.

[Bob Lyle]

Originally posted by bigwes68
Saw this one on a Tennessee high school discussion board, thought I'd share it.

2nd & 2, B's 35. Sweep comes left toward A's sideline, there is a fumble and all of a sudden, there are two loose footballs on the field. A picks one up, goes untouched into B's end zone for an apparent TD, B picks up the other one and goes untouched into A's end zone for an apparent TD. The balls are identical; it is impossible to tell which was the one in play during the down.

After a long discussion, A is flagged for sideline interference and both TDs are nullified.

Thoughts? Anyone ever heard of anything like this happening, ever?

The crew's call sounds like the only thing that could have been done. If I saw something like this, I would get a tape of the game for review by league authorities. Disciplinary action should be taken against the person(s) responsible for this hocus pocus. From your description, it may have been deliberate and it should be punished.

[INDYREF]

Were the balls checked at the beginning of the game? We check and mark each ball before the beginning of the game. If this had been done in this case, the officials would have been able to tell which ball had been in the game since it would have had the schools name on it. If the ball had the other schools name on it, it would have been an illeagal ball at that time. Marking the ball saves much confusion when moving balls in and out with a change of possession also.

[jimbulger1]

we mark the balls as well so thats the first thing i would have looked for BUT lets say the 2nd marked ball was the one tossed in
then you have to replay the down
either way i would still flag for a USC

[Blue37]

Where is the discussion board? I am in middle Tennessee. Do they do other sports?

[mcrowder]

Indy ... suppose you HAD marked the balls in this case. Would you try to rule that only what happened to the "right" ball? I don't think that would be appropriate either, even if you knew which ball was "right". I think you HAVE to assume the team at "fault" is the team whose sideline the ball must have come in from, and penalize accordingly.

[shawn.wortman]

I'm with Blue 37, where is the board? I'm in West TN.

[bigwes68]

It was on CoachT.com's football board; I didn't mean to imply that it was a TN officiating discussion board.

Happened in Bartlett vs. Bolton.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally posted by mcrowder
Indy ... suppose you HAD marked the balls in this case. Would you try to rule that only what happened to the "right" ball? I don't think that would be appropriate either, even if you knew which ball was "right". I think you HAVE to assume the team at "fault" is the team whose sideline the ball must have come in from, and penalize accordingly.

I'm wary of assuming anything in a situation like this. I would have to see a member of one of the teams intentionally throwing a ball onto the field before penalizing either side. There are just too many things that could have happened that we don't know about.

[See_Leather]

So does everyone agree with the idea to replay the down? Would spotting the ball at the beanbag spot be an option?
Does anyone know how the crew ruled??
Thanks for the input!!

[SouthGARef]

I think you could do either of two things:

A) Just replay the down

B) Treating it like an inadvertent whistle. Give A the option of repeating the down or taking the results of the play up until the point of chaos. Come to think of it, the second I saw two balls and I didn't know which one was "live", I'd probably be on my whistle anyway--inadvertent or not (I'll bite the bullet for the sake of the kids)

It seems to me in a situation like this it's the only way you can be fair. It's not fair to put points on the board on either side.

I also agree with the earlier point that I don't want to assume ANYTHING like this. Unless I CLEARLY saw someone INTENTIONALLY throw a ball onto the field, I've got nothing. Who's to say someone didn't run into the ball boy and one of the balls he was holding popped out?

[Forksref]

The second ball could have been accidentally kicked out there. I'd go the inadvertent whistle route and go from the spot of the bean bag (the end of the run).

[PSU213]

I agree with going with the IW rule. Even if the balls are marked I think it is unfair to B if A carried the "official" ball into the EZ (or vice versa), and the other team had the "fake" ball.