Two minute drill: Why do we hurry?

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by ChickenOfNC

Someone in another thread commented about the NFL's preseason experiment of putting the umpire in the offensive backfield with R, except for after the two minute warning. The reason given was so they could be quicker spotting the ball for the two minute offense.

This brought up something that has bugged me since I've been officiating (5 years):

Why should we (officials) deviate from our normal pace, just because we're at the end of the half? I've seen it time after time, officials rushing around to spot the football, giving the offense the opportunity to run one or two extra plays.

Why would we all of a sudden decide to give one team an advantage, when we work so hard the rest of the game to make sure we DON'T?

I think it's because failure to ready the ball quickly at other times doesn't affect the game, because nobody wants to snap it quickly then, while failure to ready the ball fast enough when team A does want to play it does affect the game.

Of course there could be the odd occasion when team A wants to run a quick play in the middle of a period, and the officials don't know it.

Robert

[MJT]

If you think about it, during the normal part of the game, you have a routine to get the ball set and ready for play. In this normal routine of yours, it is about the same speed as which the teams are moving about their pace. Then it gets to where there are two minutes or so left in the half or the game and the teams pick up their pace. To maintain a pace that is similar to that of the offensive team, we pick up our pace as well. It is something you do for either team, and an injustice if you do not change your pace at all.