What's the call

[surehands]

1st and ten for team A at the 20 yard line and Team Adrops to pass and throws. Offensive lineman A68 id flsggrf got holfing 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage at the 12 yard line while the ball is in the air. If accepted what is the correct inforcement?

[surehands]

Penalize 10 yards from the 20 yard line 1st and 20 from the 10 yard line

[svm1010]

Foul is on the offense and behind the basic spot....don't forget the All-but-One

10 penalty from the spot of the foul. 1/2 the distance to the goal 1 & 24 from the 6 yd line

BAD LINEMAN, BAD

[Bob M.]

REPLY: However surehands is correct for NCAA.

[waltjp]

Originally Posted by surehands

A68 is flagged for holding (edited for clarity) 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage at the 12 yard line while the ball is in the air.

If I'm reading this correctly the hold occurred after the pass was thrown. All I have is a 'knock it off'.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by surehands

1st and ten for team A at the 20 yard line and Team A drops to pass and throws. Offensive lineman A68 is flagged for holding 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage at the 12 yard line while the ball is in the air. If accepted what is the correct inforcement?

CANADIAN RULING:

Enforcement spot for a minor foul prior to yards gained is the previous spot. Result: Team A 1D/20 @ A-10.

My question is: if the ball ia already in the air, why is A flagged for a hold?:

1. If the B player being held has a chance to catch the ball, pass interference should be called.
2. If the B player being held doesn't have a chance to catch the ball, why is there a flag at all, as the flag has no effect on the play. This is an unnecessary flag, and is a game interruptor.

If (2) is the situation, I would never never never ever throw this flag. I would pick up this flag if thrown by a different official; it's simply not called.

[Forksref]

He may have been flagged after the ball was in the air but when did he start to hold the guy? Pure judgment.

[svm1010]

Originally Posted by waltjp

If I'm reading this correctly the hold occurred after the pass was thrown. All I have is a 'knock it off'.

True, but a "talk to" doesn't excersize our enforcement muscles.

[waltjp]

I did have a similar situation in a game last year. The visiting team came into the game with a 2-1 record and pretty high expectations for the season. The ended up taking a good ol' fashioned butt kicking, losing 39-3. Their coach is pretty well known and can be a hand full at times.

Several times during the game I talked to offensive and defensive linemen about continued action after the pass had been thrown - nothing serious, just some upright wrestling and such.

The visitors have the ball in the third period, trailing by 20 or so and trying desperately to get back into the game. A10 drops back to pass. The pass is away and I observe A65 and B79 continuing their slow dance. I step up and tell them to knock it off. As they separate A65 slaps his opponent in the side of the helmet.

I throw the flag and report the foul as 'illegal use of hands.' For clarification we inform A's coach that his player slapped the defender in the helmet.

Now it starts, "In 35 years of football I've never heard of a blocker head-slapping the defender!" Blah, blah, blah...

Now I like this coach. He gets emotional on the field but he doesn't hold a grudge and is a really nice guy off the field. When I see him next he asks me about the play and I explained what I saw. I asked if he had a chance to look at the file, which he did. I then told him, "Coach, if you saw the film you know I could have called that a punch and ejected your player, right?"

He agreed, but then said he's still never seen called in 35 years of football.