much to my chagrin, I agreed to call a pee-wee game on Saturday to help out one of my buddies. As could be expected the local league has various rules that they have tacked onto an already convoluted FED rule book to make things "fair".

Sitch: 2nd half - A scores a touchdown using an ineligible reciever (local rule, can only play receiver one half - if he touches the ball). After the RFP, prior to the snap on the try, the game administrator who is responsible for keeping track of eligibility, calls for an official timeout and informs me that the receiver is inelligible and the coach of B knows and is making an issue of it. The chains have already moved and I have way of knowing what the previous spot is.

What would you do?

I assume that there are no official stats. Therefore:

1) Ask the administrator where the previous spot was.

2) If he doesn't know, then split the difference between what the A and B coaches tell you it was.

3) Tell my buddy to lose my phone #.

That may be one of the dumbest rules I've heard yet.

We had a sitch where a player was suspended for a half by game administration. After a play in which he ran the ball, and we'd already moved chains, our admin came and told us that he should not have played, and we needed to rule USC on the play. We asked him where the ball was before we'd moved the chains. He did not know, so we did not enforce this "out-of-rulebook" penalty. If admin is going to disrupt the game, he damn well better be able to tell us EXACTLY what we are required to "fix" it, or we simply can't.

In mcrowder's position, I would simply have asked the game administrator to go eject the coach for playing the suspended player. I'm sure he would love to go talk to the coach.

I don't think this is necessarily a bad rule, but it is a bad idea to have the officials enforce it. Let's say the receiver is #21. Have game administration clearly tell the coach that 21 cannot play in the 2nd half. If he plays, it's a forfeit (or something of that nature), but definitely take it out of the hands of the officials.

Never work with this 'friend' again. Or never work in this league again. Take your pick. Pee-wee is supposed to be fun and instructional for the kids. Let the coaches figure it out.

That tells the story right there for me. If they want funny stuff like that (not necesarily all bad), they need to do a better job of giving the officials a way to enforce it.

I did pee-wees not long ago in a league where certain players had a sizeable piece of orange tape on the back of their helmet. While on offense, the players with tape were not allowed to touch the ball if their team was up by a certain amouint of points (sorta like a mercy rule, but it put restrcitions on the team rather than a running clock, etc.)

I realize that this is pee-wees and they have their own quirks, but what if this came up in a strictly Fed. situation?
I don't have USC in any situation, but even if it was USC, the penalty would be administered from the succeding spot.
If an ejected player returns, we have illegal participation. 9-6-4e
However, a suspended player (school, league, state, etc.) doesn't fall under our jurisdiction. I know that I've read a ruling on that somewhre. It's probably a state ruling, but I'm not sure. Can anybody help out?

Jonathan

Pee Wee
 

I tell all coaches the way I am going to call the game as reference to calls and their rules and that I don't want to hear anything from them it is an instructional day for me and that I am not there to throw flags but help the kids to understand the game better this usually works when I set the tone in the begining. I do this games a lot because I believe that as officials we have a responsiblity to help teach these kids the rules and good sportsmanship. Look at this way and you will always have a good time. As far as the game Admin for this penalty I would administer it from about were the LOS was and discuss the reseting of the chains with both coaches at the same time. I have had some of my greatest laughs with these kids

DQ the Coach
 

jransom,

If a previously DQ'd player returns, not only do you have IP, but you also have a HC who should be DQ'd for allowing the player to return.