Is hand chop required?

[Bob M.]

REPLY: Ref Ump Welsch...I agree. However, when there's a coach on the sideline--or both sidelines--with a watch, you're going to catch grief even if your BJ does count off the last five seconds. One coach's watch will definitely be running faster than yours; and you can bet that the other coach's watch will be running slower than yours! The best of all possible worlds is that the game clock is running when the RFP is blown and the BJ is facing the scoreboard.

Originally Posted by Bob M.

REPLY: Ref Ump Welsch...I agree. However, when there's a coach on the sideline--or both sidelines--with a watch, you're going to catch grief even if your BJ does count off the last five seconds. One coach's watch will definitely be running faster than yours; and you can bet that the other coach's watch will be running slower than yours! The best of all possible worlds is that the game clock is running when the RFP is blown and the BJ is facing the scoreboard.

My crew solved that problem. We tell the coaches that we have one of those ReadyRef pagers, that will time the 25 seconds and it buzzes at 20, and our BJ will count off. My white hat will "warn" coaches that we will NOT accept any bellyaching from them about the 25-seconds being inconsistent. We've actually flagged one coach for USC because he kept yelling out the time it took from RFP to snap on EVERY play by the opponents. After the flag, he was quiet.

[Mike L]

Like Ref inSoCA said, we don't chop, rarely get any comment about the 25 second clock from coaches, rarely have delay flags. Perhaps in our area, this is a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.
And as usual, my advise is to do what your local assoc and/or state wants you to do.