Here is a situation, was wondering what everyone else thought about it.

Team A is flagged for a live ball illegal shift at the snap, Quarterback A1 drops back 8 yards to pass but seeing the flag from the Referee he stops as does every other team A and team B member. There was no whistle or anything to cause the ball to be dead, just everyone stopped.

Several questions we came up as an association.

When do you blow the whistle? If at all?
How do you enforce it? IW? The illegal shift?

We basically said that if we blow the whistle it is for safety and the quarterback's forward progress has stopped, so it is not an inadvertent whistle. Choice for the defense, 5 yard repeat for illegal shift, or next down where the quarterback was when we blew it.

In your scenario I'm not blowing a whistle as the play hasn't resulted in a downed/dead ball yet and the play is still live with the clock ticking down. If the coaching staff doesn't catch on and start yelling at their players to play, I might give a "Ball's still live guys!"

I can just see 5 officials, A & B all playing chicken to see who'll be the first to flinch.

WM

We had somethiing similar in a game scrimmage last week. Time was running down n the period and A was using a hurry-up offense. They had just made a first down and were at the line while the chains were being moved. I had already spotted the ball and gave my usual 'wait for the whistle' instruction while we waited for the chains to be set.

Once the chains were set I again asked them to wait for the ready to play whistle. My R blew the whistle and the ball was snapped almost immeadiately. The QB took the snap and just stood there, as did all the other players.

After a moments pause one of B players tackled the QB. A's coach starts yelling to us, "what was the whistle for?"

"Coach, that was the ready for play." Nothing else was said.

WyMike - yet another in a series of scary instructions from you.

You just blew the whistle during a live ball. Inadvertent Whistle - now you have to clean it up.

DON'T BLOW THIS WHISTLE! Someone will figure it out. Don't say, "Boys the play is live" or anything else. At the most, stand as if you're waiting for something to happen. It will.

mcrowder dude, less caffeine okay? Reread my post then the OP.

WyMike did not IW. Thanks... You scare easily fella...

WM

You definitely don't have an inadvertent whistle. It's a judgment and safety issue and the covering official can blow it dead or let it go a bit longer. I actually saw this in an NFL game Friday night (Ram's vs. Chiefs). The player picked up a fumble which he thought was an incomplete pass. He stood there a bit and when he tried to hand it to the ref, it was finally blown dead.

Usually if you stand there awhile, they catch on but, if they don't, you can legally blow it dead and the run ends there.

Where did WyMike say blow the whistle?

I have had this happen a couple of times, usually at lower levels. The only time I will say that the "Play is live" is when someone tries handing me the ball. And I say it loud enough for both sidelines to hear. No whistle, keep the ball boxed in and stand there, someone will figure it out sooner than later.

LDLJ,

What rule do you apply to legally blow it dead? I don't see anything in the NFHS rules that cover this situation.

If it's a loose ball (which I realize this isn't), you can blow it dead under 4-2-2-e-2. Common sense will tell you if you can blow it dead while it's loose and nothing is going on, you can blow it dead while it is in possession and nothing is going on. It is a saftey issue mainly. The kid is standing there relaxed and eventually some defender might figure it out and give the "runner" a blast. If it's obvious that they aren't going anywhere, blow it dead. Neither coach will object and you prevented an injury.

I like yelling out it is a live play a lot more than killing the ball in player possesion intentionally with a whistle.

I don't have a problem with that. I did want to emphasize that if I did blow the whistle, it would not be an inadvertant whistle and the ball would be dead there.

I gathered that as an Intentional Inadvertant Whistle is a really good oxymoron.

Yeah, sort of an advertant (or is it "vertant") whistle.

the few time i have had similar circumstances, i did not have to wait long before a coach was yelling that the ball was live. that got action going quickly by both teams.