Inadvertant whistle
 

Thank goodness no one on our crew had one in our latest game (or yet this season...knock on wood), but this discussion came up during our pregame:

I was saying, if you have an IW, blow the play dead all the way, and own up to it (no argument from anyone so far). My next statement was, don't mirror a whistle, because that could have come from the band, a fan, etc., and now you would have killed a live ball. The R then said, no, it does not matter, the band whistle would be an IW too that ends the play. I did not pursue it at the time because it was the pregame and I did not want us to get too far off track. So, I now bring it here...is the band whistle an IW that kills the play, or do we let the play run and tell the appropriate 'authorities' about it?

If I hear a non-field official whistle, then I keep officiating, but if I see any player stop or even pause and this pause/stop has a noticable effect on the play, then I kill it myself, issue an IW, quickly look to identify the culprit, and approach the WH with who that culprit is.

Around here usually the "culprit" is the referee on the next field over.

I've often wondered about this.

Football here is often played at community fields: there are football fields, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, etc... all in one montrous chunk of land.

They are designed well enough, but there is one commuity field where the whistle from one field can be heard on others. To date, I have yet to have a case where players stop/pause because they hear a whistle from a different field. (Knock on wood.)

I've always said to myself what keeps the players from stopping? Is it the volume of the whistle - they know it's from a different field?

I think it is because they go by when the play has ended by rule. Remember the whistle only ends the play on one condition - IW. This is evidence that you can have a play end without a whistle because they don't really pay attention to it anyway. They know when the play ends even at the lowest levels.

My R had three IW's two Fridays ago. Yes, I said THREE.

The first time I'd ever worked with him, and hopefully the last.