What happens if there is actually contact? I suppose if no contact at all calls for a 15 yard penalty, then if he actually makes contact, the punishment should be much more severe. Eject if he makes contact. :D Why don't the Fed just put in a "halo" rule for passes.

But you are interfering with his attempt to successfully complete a pass. What is the diff?

It's funny -- I've never considered this NOT to be interference. If we DIDN'T flag this, they'd be all over us.

REPLY: MICoach...All discussions of the value of the faceguarding rule aside, if the play occurred exactly as you have described it, it wouldn't seem that your defender's raising his hands in any way could have interfered with the receiver's attempt to catch the pass. Remember two things: (1) a defender who's not looking back and playing the ball will be a lot more suspect for passinterference than one who is, and (2) often (not always...but often), Little League football gets the services of Little League officials, many times younger inexperienced officials who are just learning the ropes.

thank you mcrowder, i wasnt in any way blaming an official for the game or anything. it might have sounded like it, but it was not meant to be. i dont blame officials for losing games (though at times i would like to :)), and i tell each and everyone of my players that the ref's dont put the pads on so they cant lose or win a game for us. being an official myself, i understand how hard it is to do your job out there on the field, and commend most that put forth the time and effort to help teach the younger players the rights and wrongs of the sport that I (we) sometimes as coaches forget to teach. it is always nice to have an official who will take the time to explain things to the kids so they understand what happened. we all know that just because you are the coach, doesnt mean they will listen to you. sometimes it takes someone outside of the coaching staff to tell them before it registers with them.

now onto the subject of the original post. that is what i was thinking about faceguarding. you have to be impeding the rec's vision to the ball. like i said previously, i wasnt sure if there was a distance in there you had to be. to me being 5 yds from the rec. makes it tough to call faceguarding, but it was called so i had to live with it and did. i just wanted a clarification on the rule to better understand and teach the players.

we always teach the DB's to watch the rec's hands and eyes, when they reach for the ball, and their eyes get big they are supposed to turn to look for the ball, and put a hand up to deflect the pass. but as stated, in this instance, the db was beat and was playing catch up.

thank you for all the replies