I'm an Editor for a high school football website in Illinois & I'm doing a small opinion piece on Sideline Warnings, and I was wondering about what would happen in a bizarre situation like a frustrated kid coming out of the sideline or off the bench & tackeling someone on a sure fire break away TD.

I'm sure that he'd get ejected from the game & if he was a junior, might never be allowed to play again, but I can't believe that it would just be a 5 yard penalty for Sideline Violation, would you tack on a unsportsman like contuct 15 yarder on there as well? Or do you rule the play a TD? And in that case, what do you do if it wasn't a sure fire TD?

By the way. This hasn't happened. HS sports as far as I've seen it hasn't gotten that bad.

Cheers,
Vincent Johnson
http://www.IHSFW.com

The Referee can award a Touchdown for any unfair act that would have prevented a TD. This is the classic case for awarding a TD unless it was unclear that the ball carrier would have scored.

Peace

A sideline warning is not for this anyway. At minimum, this would be illegal participation. Intermediate would be IP (when he entered the field), and USC. And the strongest allowable penalty would be to award the TD and eject.

I would love to have to make this call. :D :D

PS: Canadian rule is the same - award a TD.

I think it is also safe to say that any ambiguity whether or not the player would have scored would be construed AGAINST the offending team.

Did this one recently, but lest change it around a bit.

What if the team with the ball A has a player step on the field and make a block that releases him to the end zone. Say the block happens at the B-35.

Now, you apply: IP/USC/BOTH + ejection.

What if the block was a push in the back that sent the would be tackler face forward and resulted in a injury that needed to be taken off the field with the help of medical staff (ie gone to hospital)?

Wondering your thoughts.

Actually, this did happen in the 1954 Cotton Bowl between Alabama and Rice. A bama player (Tommy Lewis) tackled Rice's Dickie Maegle. I believe Rice was awarded a TD, and Lewis ejected. That's the proper way to handle this on a breakaway run. If its not a breakaway, I'm still going to think long and hard about awarding a TD.

Ejection is a no-brainer. This is a flagrant act.

I would award a TD in this situation and eject the player.

TD, UC, ejection which is good for the next game, too.

If it is pretty clear that he could have scored a touchdown then part of the penalty enforcment would be a touchdown useing 9-9 (the God rules). It is a minimum of illegal participation. Ejecting the player is a simple one. Whether you call it IP or USC I feel that 9-9 allows us to award the TD and also penalize on the try but calling it USC is probably the better way to go.

Question that just occurred to me.

Can you call it IP, award the TD, eject, and then enforce USC on the kickoff or the try? (If no, what if the illegal participant ended the play with a 15-yard facemask - could THAT be enforced on the kickoff or try?)

Well if you're going to award the TD, you could basically do whatever the hell you want. You realy could call IP, USC, facemask, but it will always go on the try in NFHS.

What if it is not a clear "breakaway" for the runner, but he has only one man to beat, and the IP takes place from the sideline? What do you do then? Just curious.

GH

Pure judgement. Tough call. One man to beat as in a footrace? Probably a TD. One man to beat as in a single defender ahead of him or waiting for him? Tougher call.

I'll go with 5 yards past the last defender plus the 15 yards and the ejection. It sounds good to me in principle at least. The defender probably won't stop the runner on a dime so 5 yards sounds reasonable.