Umpire Question

[BigGref]

HS Varsity
How often do the U's out there blow their whistle; every play echoing others, whenever in area, only when at feet, only on close incompletes, or never there are 4 others for that. And do you use your voice/presence more to even out, etc. THanks!!

[Snake~eyes]

When I work U, which I don't often because I don't like it that much, I spit the whistle out at the snap, I usually don't ever blow it after that.

[cowbyfan1]

When I work U I am the same way. I drop it at the snap and never blow it after that unless I have an incomplete, but in the 5 man system I would very rarely be looking for a catch.

[dh898]

Newbie here again. This brings up another question I have as I've been working scrimmages. I started out blowing whistles on runs when I saw the ball down but was told anything inside the hash mark don't do that. OK, that I understand as I'm only to blow it when it comes into my area (assuming I'm a line judge). So, if the umpire rarely blows his whistle then anything inside the hash mark is only blown dead by the referee? Is this correct? (And I'm speaking generally) I'm finding that with this knowledge I'm starting to look elsewhere other than the ball when it is not in my territory. The lightbulb is getting brighter, however, the more I learn the more I find out I don't know.

[The Roamin' Umpire]

I've heard veteran umpires in my association say they don't even carry a finger whistle because the only time they blow it is before the snap.

I've also had equally veteran umpires tell me that they have the whistle on anything inside.

Some guys say there should only ever be one whistle on any play.

Some guys say that you should echo a whistle if you hear one and there's still action going on in front of you.

My take is one I've heard from the guys I tend to have the most respect for in my organization: If you see the ball become dead, blow the whistle. This requires you to see the ball. If you can't see the ball, don't blow the whistle. But if you have the runner down, blow it.

[Snake~eyes]

Roamin' Umpire is asbolutely correct there are several opinions on this. My take is spit it out at the snap and use your voice from there, that's how I like to do it. I do not use a finger whistle.

I once heard an umpire giving advice to a new guy and he said you don't need a whistle at all. I was suprised and don't agree with that.

If you work a Crew system do whatever your white hat wants.

Also about your question about who has the whistle inside the hashes, I work the wings and we always have te whistle pretty much, but sometimes we don't even have a whistle on some plays.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: I agree with snake-eyes. I've never heard of the wings 'swallowing' their whistles when the ball becomes dead inside the hashes. Standard practice at all levels of football is that the wings blow on most plays. One notable exception would be a dive play where neither wing can see leather and can't even tell if the runner appears to be down. Then they sometimes will rely on the U to help.

[mcrowder]

And I've worked with one crew where we might go 6-7 plays in a row where NO whistle was blown.

To me, an umpire should blow the whistle very rarely - and usually only related to the "Hey! The play's over! Didn't you hear the whistle!!!"