Flag or no flag?

[Mike L]

first, my nit pick. Just how does one get 12 yards deep into an endzone?

1) from your description, I don't think if I were you, I would've thrown my flag either at the time it happened. It certainly appears from the timing of the "foul" and the flag throw the BJ was calling what you saw.

2) I would have dropped the "late" flag as soon as the BJ said he had not seen it and if I was 100% sure I did. You can't let a safety related foul like this just go. As a side note, I find the TE simply slowing at the 5 after a 65 yard run not worthy of a taunt if that is all that happened. This type of foul call, as described, is really looking for problems that just arn't there.

3) Yes, a late safety related foul call is always better than just letting it go because of the "embarassment" for being late with the call.

4) First of all, I would have done by best to reason the BJ out of his call. I mean if all he did was slow down, I'd be really hesitant about calling a USC. The placement of his flag is not really important. A USC is enforced as a dead ball foul. Which means you have to take the succeeding spot as the enforcement spot. This may be the only thing they got right. I definitely would not have ignored the late hit just because it's going to require some explaining on my part probably to both coaches. If you can't take that kind of heat, maybe you shouldn't be a R.