Fighting
 

Hi Referees

Is it correct that if you announce "Fighting" in a call, you always need to eject at least 1 player from either team? (eject 2 people or more).

I thought you can announce a "Fighting" and eject 1 person as well (for fighting).

My colleague says that in fighting there must be at least 2 people involved ... therefore you can't use the word "fighting" if you only eject 1 player.

Comments appreciated

-ML99

I'm not sure where he read that but he may want to go back and look again. All it takes is one person to take a swing and that is considered fighting. In NCAA you don't even have to make contact. If he just takes a swing at the opponent then that is also fighting. Any act that causes a player to retaliate by fighting is also, by rule, fighting. You often here the saying, "the second person always gets caught." Unfortunately that is sometimes true. In that situation only the one that gets caught is disqualified.

Thanks for your reply. That's also my philosophy .. it doesn't need 2 persons for fighting.

Same applies for NFHS.

And something that many guys working under NCAA rules often overlook is that if one player does something ignorant, i.e. taunts an opponent, and that opponent then takes a swing at him, BOTH are gone for fighting, even though in most cases that taunt would have only warranted a 15 yard penalty.