Fella's,

Regarding the call at the GL with Roth going in for the score. I think we all know the play and this post isn't about whether the call was right/wrong. We weren't there.

Here is my question.

When an official in an NFL game raises a hand is he declaring the ball dead? Is this the same as blowing the whistle?

The replay shows the official coming in with an arm up, then he signals touchdown a little bit later. <font size=4>IF</font> this means the ball is dead, do we have an inadvertant arm? :)

I was wondering the same thing on a different play, the Hasselbach fumble/D.B.C. I thought that I saw the U put his arm up, but could not see it again on the replays.

Don't know about the NFL but in the NF rules book 2.45 Inadvertant arm can only occur when the official forgets to apply deodorant.

I was led to believe that the covering offical's arm in the air signals that the play is dead and the 45-second clock should begin for the next play.

Indeed, Hittner came in with one arm up, and then signalled touchdown.

Didn't agree with the call, nor the non-overturning of said call. But when I saw the hand in the air, I said to everyone at the party, "Nope, didn't get it."

The other funny thing was on the offensive pass interference in the end zone when the back judge went to get his flag and pulled out his beanbag first. :)

The official, imo, erroneously raised his arm.

However, the correct call was made. It was a touchdown.

The only thing I did not like about the replay was the explanation, or lack there of, by Mr. Leavy.

Leavy only said the play as called stands. He did not give any explanation (as replays have been given this season in the NFL) saying either that the ball crossed the plane of the goal line and the call stands, or that there was no conclusive video evidence to overturn the call on the field. Either one of these would have added credibility to the review in my opinion.

He did a much better job explaning how Hasselback was touched while going down onthe play where the ball popped out when he hit the ground.

In or not...what's strange is that there is no camera that is lined up spot-on down the goal line. The camera angle seemed to me to be a little bit off, making the judgement of the whether the ball touched the goal line very difficult. Maybe the booth has a camera shot without parallax problems.

I agree. If they didn't give the TD and then reviewed it I think that would have stood. I think the camera was at a bad angle... thus giving us "there was no conclusive video evidence to overturn the call on the field."

But I would have liked to hear it from the referee...?

what we see is what they see...

With the technology that these networks have, you would think they would have this yellow line (only for viewers) to show if the ball breaks the plane.

If ball breaks plane, then the line shows it or vanishes. I know, it's crazy but they do have the technology.

As far as the hand raised by an official, the signal is for a dead ball but it is for officiating purposes only. As an official, we cannot expect players to stop if they see our arm raise.

In fed, we use it to allow the other officials to blow their whistle, especially at the U. Also in fed, the player is down when knee touches, and ball is dead. Players' knee down kills the play, hopefully not an IW!

I think there are a lot of fans with better TV sets than the monitors that NFL referees get. They should have a big-*** plasma for them to see. :)

That would be nice....LOL :)

Speaking of new technologies, I wonder if/when they'll come out with a microchip inside the ball that'll determine if it crosses the GL at any point. Perfect the technology and you could even use it to determine 1st downs without bringing the chains out.

I say within 15 years this technology is in place and being used in the NFL...

Personally I felt the TD call was kicked. He did not know it was a TD as he was coming in. Roth then pulled the ball out from under him and at that point, per replay, it was clearly not over the goal line. He then moved it forward and into the end zone. At that point, if I'm on the line, I rule it short. The wing didn't as it was at that point he called it a TD. To any extent replay would not have changed anything. Now did the ball actually cross when Roth was diving? Maybe, maybe not, but the covering official was not sure either as he would have came up immediately if he was.

Something I have not seen anywhere, but could explain Hittner's dead-ball, then TD signal....


We have only seen one angle of the play, the angle where we see Hittner's one-armed dead ball signal, followed by a two-armed TD signal about 2 seconds later.

Is it possible that he felt the runner was short and spotting the ball, however his linesman across the field from him (with perhaps a better angle to see the ball in the runner's arm) who we can not see in any of the replays we have been shown thus far went up with a TD signal, and thus Hittner, yielding to him mirrored his TD signal?

The play did happen pretty much in the center of the field, for both wings to have an equal look at.

Thoughts?