Question for Football Officials.....

[Tut78]

There was alot of controversy, and continued debate, over the ending of the Michigan-Michigan State football game this past fall. Regardless of officiating errors that led up to the final play, I would like an official ruling.

The MSU QB was tackled on the UM 2 yard line with approximately 11-12 seconds to go in regulation. MSU has no TO's left, and are down 24-20. The MSU players hurry to set up as the official marks the ball at the two. The ball is snapped and the QB spikes the ball, and the clock is stopped with :01 second left.

The controversy is this. When should the timekeeper stop the clock? Does he stop the clock when he visually sees the ball spiked, or does he wait for the official to raise his hands and blow the whistle? Your call!

[mikesears]

My opinion. This is an excellent question even using Federation rules. The General Instructions for Football Clock Operators doesn't give any solid answers.

Here are the instructions directly from the Nat Fed website.

Game procedures:
1. The clock operator is an integral member of the officiating crew and game administration. Unfair
advantages occur when the game clock is not started or stopped correctly by rule. Great care must be
exercised to see that no time lag occurs in starting or stopping the clock.

2. On all free kicks, the nearest official(s) will signal the legal touching of the ball by indicating that the clock
should start.

3. The official who declares the ball dead will be the first official to signal a time-out when a first down
occurs.

4. Any official may signal a team time-out; therefore, the operator should be alert to stop the clock.

5. On plays near a boundary line, unless an official so signals, if a pass is caught out of bounds, the
incompletion signal will stop the clock. Note: On plays near the out-of-bounds line and in advance of the
line to gain, an official may give a winding signal to indicate the ball is inbounds and follow it by a
stop-the-clock signal for an apparent first down. Be alert for both signals.

6. The clock operator will automatically stop the clock following a touchdown, field goal, touchback or safety
after the appropriate signal has been made.

7. After the clock has been stopped, the referee will start it again on the referee’s start-the-clock signal and
if no such signal is given, the operator will start it on the snap.

8. The referee may start the clock again before the ready-for-play signal.

9. The try is not a timed down.

10. There are instances when a period shall be extended by an untimed down. During these extensions,
leave the clock at :00. Do not reset the clock for the next period until the referee declares the period over
by facing the press box and holding the ball overhead.


Leave it up to the officials to kill the clock. Do so on their signal. If there is a timing error as a result of a delayed signal, the officials can correct it.

But I can also see the other side of this issue.

[Edited by mikesears on Dec 27th, 2001 at 12:26 PM]

[Tut78]

....I posed it on another Football Officiating Forum. Your thoughts?


http://football.refs.org/footballboa....cgi?read=3923

[mikesears]

Originally posted by Tut78
....I posed it on another Football Officiating Forum. Your thoughts?


http://football.refs.org/footballboa....cgi?read=3923

My thoughts are that nobody has the correct answer for this. Two sides to the issue:

1. According to the rules, stop the clock when the ball becomes dead and clock should be stopped.

2. Because the clock operator is so far from the action it is sometime difficult for him to know if he should kill the clock so sometimes he must wait for a signal.

3. Officials are taught to have SLOW whistles. IW's are a terrible nightmare. However the time difference between a slow whistle and the time the ball actually becomes dead could be as much as a second.

I don't think we will ever have a definite answer until someone issues an official ruling on this.

[Ed Hickland]

Originally posted by mikesears

My thoughts are that nobody has the correct answer for this. Two sides to the issue:

1. According to the rules, stop the clock when the ball becomes dead and clock should be stopped.

2. Because the clock operator is so far from the action it is sometime difficult for him to know if he should kill the clock so sometimes he must wait for a signal.

3. Officials are taught to have SLOW whistles. IW's are a terrible nightmare. However the time difference between a slow whistle and the time the ball actually becomes dead could be as much as a second.

I don't think we will ever have a definite answer until someone issues an official ruling on this.

There will probably never be an official answer. How could there be? Operation of the clock is a judgement call. The referee is empowered to correct the clock if he has enough information to reset it.

A good mechanic is to have an official who is always in position to see the play run a clock on the field, typically, the line judge. If for whatever reason, the clock operator is a homer, he is watching the game, etc. the on-field official does not have the luxury a clock operator does and will time the game consistently regardless. There can often be a second or two difference in those timings just simply based upon reaction times.

[ref5678]

i belive it is when the official signals. as that it is a call made by the on field officials not the timer