Kneel

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by fonzzy07

Had an incident today. Home team down by 6 with 45 seconds left. They onside and fail. Away team goes to take a kneel. The R tells players hands off its a kneel. The offense just stands up . Well sure enough they fumble the snap. Away team recovers. They end up driving it down to the 4 then run out of time. Do you tell players hands off for a kneel and if so does this seem like the right thing to do?

From what I've seen in Ontario, we tell the defense that the offense is taking a knee. The officials should and mostly do come in closer. If I'm R or U, I get quite close to the QB/C (~ 3 or 5 yards).

What is the purpose of taking a knee? I think one way of looking at it is that the offense is agreeing not to run a play. Why would they want to do that? They are agreeing not to run a play where they might score. However, if the offense mishandles the taking of a knee, I think the ball is live and Team B can go for it. Team A takes a knee if they're winning as a sportmanship thing. Team B is not winning, and therefore want the ball. If there is a fumble, B should be able to go for it, and that A players still need to be aware that B might hit them.

So no, I would not tell B "hands off". I just tell them that A is taking a knee. The purpose being that unless there is a fumble, not to contact A.