Well, here's what the conference super has to say about the call.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pb.../SPORTS&lead=1

So what is the rule on thumb on that? I have always been taught dont call an offsides on a kickoff unless the player is ONE FULL STEP over the line. So unless I see his foot on the ground over the line, I usually wont make that call.

What does everyone else look for?

REPLY: I treat the situation like you suggest as long as the kick is deep. If, however, it's an onsides kick attempt, I'll call it very tightly: if K clearly and obviously breaks the plane of his restraining line, I'll flag it.

It think this thread is missing the point of why we are paid the "big bucks" and that is, exercising our judgment as officials. Sure, the call may have been technically correct, however, if are using this argument to defend the call then aren't we ultimately setting ourselves up to be replaced by instant replay which can do a much better job than us to ensure "technically" correct calls are made consistently.

It has already been pointed out that the officials also missed some calls during the game, so how can we hang our hat on being technically correct in one instance when we can't even be consistent on calls throughout one game.

How many times must we take into account the flow of the game, the situation, advantage/disadvantage, etc., when making a call, something instant replay will never be able to do. The officials call on the onside kick occurred at a time in the game and against a player that didn't gain any advantage, that took the game away from the players and into the hands of the officials...or do I dare say, some day, into the hands of instant replay.

How can you know, at the moment of the foul, that a player being across the restraining line, even just a bit, at the moment of the kick during an ONSIDES kick did not gain an advantage. I'd say he most definitely DID gain an advantage not allowed by the rules. On an onsides kick, I (and every crew I work with) will call this as tightly as a scrimmage play.

With high school (NF) we would not even get to this point since offsides / encroachment causes the ball to be dead and we would be hard on our whistle long before anyone recovered the ball.

What does it mean when I hear a "call was tight but correct"? Whatever happened to the phases "fouls must show up on film", "let's not show them how smart we are", "fouls need to jump out at you", and most importantly "have a material effect on the play". If that player was 6" further back would he have less of an opportunity to be part of the play? It's micro-enforcement of a rule. I hate savaging a fellow official, especially one that has a better schedule then I do, but that call went against everything I was ever taught about officiating. I'm a deep wing and face that situation on every kick off-If it's that close I would never, ever make that call. Sorry to be a Monday Morning QB but I can't support that foul.

I know some are saying it shouldn't have been called since it was tight (but correct) and at that junction of the game. For that matter that kick could have been recovered by the very kid that was offside. The receivers may have seen how fast this kid was and paniced that he was that quick and lost focus on the kick. I admit this was a bang bang play but sometimes that's the difference in the recovery. Perhaps another scenario is the receivers may commit a foul during the kick and the kicking team recovers. What should now be an offsetting situation with a re-kick is now a recovery by the kicking team. They've been cheated out of a re-kick because we didn't flag the offside because it was tight. This very call has been ignored before in the past and you should know that the outcry was much worse than what it is now with them calling that foul.