IW question
 

Is this right? NF...

1st and 10 for A from the 25 going out. A1 is running, A2 holds at the A 34 yard line. A1 then fumbles at the 32 yard line. The ball is loose and the official inadvertently blows his whistle.

Choices:

If B declines then A will have their choice of replaying the down OR counting the down and taking the ball at the 32.

If B accepts then the IW is ignored and it will be team A's ball, 1st and 13 from the 22 marking the foul off from the end of the run

Correct. The penalty is enforced from the end of the run, B's 32. If B accepts the penalty it's first down from B's 22.

If B declines the penalty then A will have the choice of putting the ball in play from the spot of the fumble or replaying the down.

NF 4-2-3

.....and the official blowing the IW gets the choice of 4 lashes or walking home.

We had one of the worst situations possible for an IW on Monday. Newer official, second year, was LJ on a kickoff. K onsides and the ball hits K about 5 yards down field and rolls around there for a bit. While the ball is still moving LJ blows his whistle. So now not only does R not get to take the ball at the spot of first touching but K gets to kick off again. Let's just say they were none to happy with us about that one.

We all make mistakes. On lower level games this may occur with newer officials.

It has happened at all levels of play. Several years ago, I heard an IW at an NFL game. And every year, there seems to be an IW at the college level somewhere.


It is just more likely to occur at lower levels because younger officials haven't developed the whistle control needed.

I wouldn't say that this was an issue of whistle control though I agree that is an issue with newer officials. This was just an issue with a new official seeing a situation he was not familiar with. This first touching by K on a kick-off was new to him. Talking to him later proved that he did know most of what he needed to know on the play except the fact that the touching by K didn't cause the ball to become dead. I said that if the ball had stopped moving prior to his whistle then we could have gotten away with just declaring a stationary ball dead but since it was still moving we had to go with IW. This guy has had tentative whistles since he started but is getting much better. It appears that he will probably be on a varsity crew next year and that will only help him to get better. One thing I notice about him is that he is working in a small town on Saturdays and is the only registered official working those games. With that he has no mentoring and may develop bad techniques so these JV and freshman games are his big test right now to make sure he is doing things correctly.

Or awarded a finger whistle because he didn't get the whistle spit out at the snap.

Canadian Ruling
 

An IW during a loose ball goes to the team last in possession at the point of fumble. That is the A-32 yard line. In Canada, we need to know where the ball was when the holding was flagged. I will assume that it is before yards are gained. (It'd be odd for yards to be gained, a hold happens, A1 then runs to behind the LTG, then fumbles.)

The IW means point ball dead is the A-32. B can decline the hold, 2nd and 3 from the A-32, or accept the hold, 1st and 20 from the A-15.

We had an IW on a play where there was illegal motion on the running back. For some reason, as soon as the play (ball) was in front of me, a whistle sounded. Of course everyone stopped except the ball carrier who ran 50+ yards for what he thought was a TD. Guess he wanted the exercise. At the end of the quarter a coach is on me about the IW (it wasn't me) and I explained stuff happens, hopefully won't happen again, sorry it happened, etc. Sure as hell, about three plays later it happened again, by another person. Sure made for a long first half, but we all learned a valuable lesson. The IWs had no 'effect' on the outcome of the game, but it sure showed a lack of competence that was uncharacteristic for our crew.:mad: