Acting Class is in Session

[GoodScout]

Had an interesting situation during a 7th grade game Saturday.

Had a long 55-yard breakaway score. I was trailing the play and suddenly one of the defenders literally hurls himself off his feet as if struck from behind. Mind you, there's no one within 20 yards of this 13-year-old. He comes to his feet and looks at me with the "where's the flag" gesture with both hands.

At the time, I just looked at this kid and said "No. 55, there was no one within 20 yards of you. You're a terrible actor so stop trying." Then I laughed about it and told my white hat after the PAT.

But the more I thought about it afterwards, it was clear to me that this was a coached action, and I started getting a little ticked off about it. The result of this kid doing this would either be a) a newbie official might throw a flag thinking he'd missed something, or b) it might get the fans mad at the crew, thinking we missed something.

Clearly it's not USC, but would anyone have done anything beyond what I did?