Any Advice For A Rookie?

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by dvasques

so, wearing the ring on your finger, how can you blow the whistle and signal the end of a play at the same time? Like, how can you whistle and signal an incompletion?

You just have a bit of a pause worked in.

TWEET - pull whistle out of mouth - hands up for touchdown signal.
TWEET - whistle out - incomplete pass.
So on and so forth.

If timing becomes a factor, you can actually slide your fingers out of the whistle to leave it in your mouth and signal stop-the-clock at the same time.

FWIW, while I agree that rule #1 is "keep the whistle out of your mouth," I think a close rule #2 needs to be "'fess up when you do have the (hopefully rare) inadvertent whistle."

[Dist8Ref]

All players who are ELIGIBLE at the start of the down REMAIN ELIBIGLE throughout the down

[Bob M.]

Originally Posted by Dist8Ref

All players who are ELIGIBLE at the start of the down REMAIN ELIBIGLE throughout the down

REPLY: Not sure what you're responding to here, but remember that some officials reading this board work under NCAA rules (especially our European brethren) where your statement is definitely not true. I know you mentioned Fed in the subject line, but some might have missed it.