2nd Year Official
 

I was working a scrimmage last night as U. I am learning the position but have a decent feel for it. During a break, another U spoke to me and said as U, he very rarely blows his whistle. Shortly thereafter, a run up the middle, I see the play in front of me, the leather, and the down... am not blowing the whistle - the kid gets blasted with a late hit - your thoughts and recommendations?

Normally, the wings will be blowing their whistle to indicate that the ball is dead. Rarely will the U be the one to see the player go down and have the forward progress spot. It's much like the TD. There is almost no situation where the U signals a TD.

In the case of a late hit, if you see it, you throw the flag. It is not necessary to blow your whistle if the ball is already dead and you've heard a whistle, but it doesn't hurt anything to have a whistle with your late hit flag. In some cases it might be advisable to use your whistle to cool off the hot tempers.

Bottom line, the guy was right in saying that the U rarely sounds his whistle.

U's and whistles
 

Ok so what about this play:

run up the middle, U clearly sees the ball in posession and player with one knee on the ground. Player keeps running, wings are screened, play goes for a TD.

If you have the player clearly down and you SEE leather, blow it so everyone knows it is dead.

I agree with the U not signaling a TD, but that is based on his position on the field and not being able to see if the wings have him down in the FOP. That puts him in a tough spot to accurately signal a TD.

The two situations are different, in the case of calling the runner down, you have the angle, position and it is your call, in the case of signaling a TD, you don't have position or angle to make that call.

If you blow the whistle too often, then you are not doing your job as an umpire. You should not be watching the ball the entire game. Always stay focused on the point of attack. Also, if you blow the whistle, then you can't talk to the players at the same time. I good umpire takes control and talks to players, and keeps the rest of the crew in the game.

As the U, your voice is your whistle. You should be telling them the play is over as opposed to blowing your whistle. You're better off keeping it in your pocket. If you use a finger whistle, it will get broken. If your wear a lanyard you're liable to be hung by it.

Rarely doesn't mean never
 

Smitty, kook at what Forksref and Careyy said. careyy spells out a time when a whistle would be appropriate, and Forksref said the U will rarely blow the whistle. He didn't say the U will never blow the whistle.

I agree that for a U, the voice is the whistle.

In the original play, the defender piled on a kid on the ground. Would your whistle have supplied some shielding force to the ball carrier? no. A late hit is a late hit. The whistle has nothng to do with it. It's never legal to pile on to a player on the ground -- live ball included. So if you see it, flag it for a late hit and don't listen to nonsense about playing to the whistle. That's bad advice because the whistle almost always comes well after the ball is already dead.

Those are coach words, and should be ignored. It doesn't mean we should have a quicker whistle. I want slow, slow whistles.

I drill that into my crew members. My crew, in its present form, hasn't had an IW. A former crew member had our last one over 3 years ago. I'm not saying we'll never have another, but we've had a lot of option teams and we've been very good at this aspect of officiating.

[quote=RichMSN]Those are coach words, and should be ignored. It doesn't mean we should have a quicker whistle. I want slow, slow whistles.

...[quote]

Or, no whistle.

As to the original question.

Never say never. As the U if you plainly see the ball and the runner is down, then, blow the whistle especially if you see players still moving and no whistle has sounded. I think it is best for the U to use a finger whistle in order to delay blowing it.

Second, a whistle does not kill the play, the play kills itself. Last season there was some criticism in an NFL game because the whistle was not blown. Mike Pereria, VP of Officiating, reminded the announcer a whistle does not have to be blown.

Lastly, some teams are just aggresive. I had one team in games the last two years there was a late hit in both games when the player was clearly down on the ground. This team is coached to go after the runner with the consequence being late hits as I flagged them.

Bottom line, if you felt it was a late hit, it was.

As a U I keep my whistle in my mouth prior to the snap while looking for a FS. After the snap I drop it out of my mouth. The only time I blow the whistle to kill the play is if the ball carrier is tackled right in front of me. Even then I have to reach down and find it and then bring it to my mouth so I will not be to quick with it.

In response to, "I teach them to play till the whistle", might simply be, "you're teaching them wrong". Players are responsible for the contacts they make, and late is just late whether there's a whistle or not.

An Umpire keeping a whistle out of his mouth in traffic is a good way to avoid unnecessary dental surgery.

REPLY: On runs, the call of a player down and his forward progress is the primary responsibility of the wings, and only the secondary responsibility of the umpire. A good rule of thumb in plays like this is to give your partners who have the primary responsibility the first opportunity to make the call. But you should never let this play be ruled incorrectly just because it wasn't your primary responsibility. And for plays where you need to make a call related to a secondary responsibility, you had better be 200% sure of what you saw. I 'think' his knee was down isn't a good reason. I realize that your play had the U clearly see the ball in runner possession and a knee on the ground. If your wings don't blow in this case, you absolutely have to.

I agree with Bob M 100%.

We had a championship game a few years back. Time was running out in the half and the offense ran the old "Hook & Ladder". The receiver caught the ball falling and tossed a backward pass to a teammate trailing. The LJ took off with the play which was at least thirty yards down field for an apparent TD. The U allowed the LJ to make the call, but when he didn't - he started blowing his whistle, went to the spot where the receiver’s knee was on the ground and started pounding the ground - really sold his call! Replay (not official) confirmed the receiver’s knee was on the ground before releasing the ball. That would have been a huge swing in that game if not for an alert U.

But as Bear Bryant once told Dick Burleson - You'd better be right!

You are correct, however telling a coach that he is wrong is a good way to put him on the defensive and get him to dig in his heels (at least thats what it does to my wife :) ) Perhaps a better approach would be to remind the coach that "the whistle does not cause the a dead ball, the ball is dead by rule already and that the players need to be aware of the play around them and are responsible for the legality of the contact."

Whistle or no?
 

As a 14 year veteran, and 11 years at Umpire on Friday nights, 99% of the time I blow my whistle is to echo another official, or stop for equipment. But the other 1% is when I've got a ball carrier obviously down at my feet. Anywhere else but right below me, I'm giving the call to another official.

What if the whistle you echo came from the stands?