REPLY: Living in NJ, I got to see a lot of Rutgers football over the last two seasons, and with that, a lot of Ray Rice. Each and every time he scored a TD, without fail, he would pass through his teammates who were looking to celebrate, hunt out the nearest official, and hand him the ball. Each and every time...made it look like he'd been there before.

Ah, thanks. I avoid having umpteen different apps on my PC and IE crashes like twice a year - so I'm happy with it. They skipped the "u" because I still use "US English". But I use the Google Toolbar and my 'Bookmarks' travel with me when I sign into iGoogle. I just installed Chrome though... you could say that I'm a Google fan. :)

Oddly enough, that's the serious argument one the local sports talk hosts (who played college football) offered up yesterday. A guy called in and said he was a youth coach, and always taught his players to set the ball down and go to the sideline. You can celebrate there. The host then jumps in and says, "But it's football. It's an emotional game. [yadda yadda]." :rolleyes:

This stuff is why I don't listen to much sports radio anymore.

How is spontaneously throwing the ball 40' into the air less showboating than spiking 1' from the ground? :confused:

Its hard to believe any official would question this call. What if this had occurred in the first quarter and not been flagged, then, the opponent had scored in the second quarter and launched the ball. Therefore, since you did not penalize the first occurrence you cannot justify subsequent occurrences.

Well, aren't we suppose to officiate the game the same all the way from opening kickoff until the R holds the ball up to signal it over?

In order to be consistent you make that call anytime it occurs regardless of the clock or the score.

Sports in high school and college is suppose to be a learning experience and part of that experience is discipline and respect for the rules and authority.

This was a lesson in "tough love."

Oddly enough, if the official wouldn't have thrown the flag, there would most likely have been ZERO backlash for not calling it (moreover- nobody would have noticed or said "hey, he should have thrown a flag on that!").

Eh, go figure

Wrong. BYU would have complained as would have all BYU supporters and most all officials. The media might not have complained (except for BYU-connected media) but there would have been plenty of griping.

I recall a few bowl game last year in which there were players doing somersaults "spontaneuously" as they scored, and others who interacted with the fans and none of those were flagged. Those officials got ripped by the media for not flagging them. The media is going to rip the officials no matter how it gets called. Their sole purpose is to create controversy because it draws in an audience.

[Disclaimer: I belong on the round yellow ball board, but I'm a BYU fan and I like browsing your threads anyway so let me add a touch to this comment.]

Given the way the rest of the drive was "officiated," the hostility would have lasted a long time. The BYU radio guys were already up in arms about the typical experience of traveling to a PAC-10 stadium. The quote from the play-by-play guys just as the flag was thrown was: "If they hadn't thrown that flag, you never would have heard the end of it from me."
________
Roll blunts

Bingo. The cries of BYU being "homered" by a Pac-10 crew in a Pac-10 stadium would've been deafening.

For accuracy's sake, science tells us that the ball went about 25 feet into the air.

In other words, it wouldn't have hit the ceiling in an indoor basketball gymnasium. :D

I think that it's good that this type of controversy came out early in the year. The hope is that the authoritive acceptance of officials will increase.

Not necessarily true, my friend. And no, I'm not arguing with science; I'm no flat earther.

Which part is NNT?

I've reffed some basketball games where a ball could never reach 25 feet into the air. I'm not sure the court I played on as a kid didn't have rafters sitting below that mark.