Announcing an IW
 

Friday night, 2 point game midway thru 3rd quarter. At mid-field, fullback up the gut, 2 yd gain, pile stops, I see the ball loose, when my U blows his whistle, defense picks up the ball, we are all on our whistles before defender gained possession. I immediately knew we had an IW, (our first in 6 years). I was wearing a mike and liked it up to that point, but I was hoping for battery failure right about then. I announced the IW, we replayed the down, we 'got it right'. I explained to the irate coach that we made a mistake, we have rules to cover the situation, we're moving on. We were roundly bood the rest of the night. After the game, we listened to a state-wide 'scoreboard' show on the radio that gives scores throughout the state, interviews coaches etc. A reporter called in and gave a report on our game. He said "We never recovered after the officials took away a touchdown from us with an inadvertent whistle". Of course there was no touchdown and they wouldn't have scored one even if they recovered the fumble with no IW.

Which all brings me to this: If I had to do over, I don't think I would have announced the IW, I may not have even given the signal (extened fist). If I had said the runner's progress had stopped before the ball came out, some may have disagreed, but we would not have been ostrasized us for admitting an IW.
Your thoughts, please.

You're going to get booed anyway - so get booed for doing the right thing.

you could fool anyone in the stands with that, except maybe an observer, and if you are interested in post-season, doing something like that just to save face is probably not going to impress the observer. It's just the radio's and if they said "officials" and not Referee Smith, i dont think there is much to worry about. If you listen to the loosing coach, its usually the officials fault...

You definitely have to rule properly on the IW. You can however have a mic "failure" when making the announcement. I learned this from Red Cashion. There are times in the game when making the announcement will cause things to get even more crazier. Just stand there and pretend to turn on the switch. Tap on the switch to indicate it's not working and continue with the announcement.

Must be nice to have an observer. No matter how you call this, the losing coach is going to blame you and give you the lowest score possible likely preventing you from advancing far in the playoffs in Indiana. They may even call all their friends who have never seen you work and tell them to give you a bad score (there's nothing stopping this either). At least your observers are somewhat educated on officating and know the rules and what to watch for (i hope).

Remember, the microphone is for announcing penalties, not a commentary on every play. I'd own up to the IW to the coach but I wouldn't make an announcement to the crowd. Just do your thing, set up the next play and move on.

REPLY: Jim...I think the issue here is that there is a signal given for an inadvertent whistle, and there might be an expectation of an announcement of some sort.

I agree but an expectation is not an obligation so, if conditions were not so great, I'd tend to skip the announcement.