Question for the white hats.

[big_houn]

Hey Guys, listen I have a question about celebration penalties and how it is applied. So here is the situation

The team has scored the TD. Line up for the p.a.t (2 point conversion), make the 2-point conversion, whistle blows and the play is over. The running back spins the ball in the end zone and draw an excessive celebration call. Now, is the penalty assessed on the kickoff, or do the official take the two points off the score board, assess the 15 yard penalty and force the team to retry the p.a.t..

Now, I was under the impression that once the play was over and the whistle is blown and an unsportsman like celebration penalty happens the penalty yardage is assessed on the kickoff.

I can understand if the penalty happen after the TD, then the penalty is assessed on the p.a.t.. But the penalty happened after the 2-point conversion. Can some please shed some light this for me.....Thanks
!

[kdf5]

Originally Posted by big_houn

Hey Guys, listen I have a question about celebration penalties and how it is applied. So here is the situation

The team has scored the TD. Line up for the p.a.t (2 point conversion), make the 2-point conversion, whistle blows and the play is over. The running back spins the ball in the end zone and draw an excessive celebration call. Now, is the penalty assessed on the kickoff, or do the official take the two points off the score board, assess the 15 yard penalty and force the team to retry the p.a.t..

Now, I was under the impression that once the play was over and the whistle is blown and an unsportsman like celebration penalty happens the penalty yardage is assessed on the kickoff.

I can understand if the penalty happen after the TD, then the penalty is assessed on the p.a.t.. But the penalty happened after the 2-point conversion. Can some please shed some light this for me.....Thanks
!

An unsportsmanlike foul after a try is assessed from the succeeding spot. Points remain on the board.

[big_houn]

Thanks kdf5, I though that was the case. My youth football team was the team in the senario I described, and when the official took the point off the board and applied the penalty I was floored.

When I tried to an explaintion, he told me that the other team had the option having the penalty assessed on the kick off or moving us back 15 yard and retry the p.a.t. We had the monmentum, and that 2 point conversion would have tied the game.

My kids were devasted and that turned the tide of the game, and they regain the momentum. We ended up losing by 15.

[Ed Hickland]

I had one of those decleaters on a TD run Friday night. Coach saw the whole thing and started yelling at the player. To me it was obvious the whistle had blown and no question in my mine the play was dead but had a TD been scored.

Not intentionally but I went downfield to see the result of the play I heard from the sidelines one of the coaches ask, "Did the touchdown count?"

[Forksref]

Live ball.

It's a safety issue. And...I usually believe that I have not been given the authority to change rulings/enforcements. If I do, then what other rules do I think are unfair that I should interpret to my liking??

I have worked at this and have studied the rules and I have been given the authority to apply the rules given to me, even if I don't like them.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Forksref

Live ball.

It's a safety issue.

What do those 2 issues have to do with each other? Wouldn't it be just as much (if anything, more of) a safety issue if it occurred while the ball was dead? It's the question of whether the ball was alive or dead that you're ruling on, and I don't see how the dangerousness of the act in question bears.

And...I usually believe that I have not been given the authority to change rulings/enforcements. If I do, then what other rules do I think are unfair that I should interpret to my liking??

The question was not whether you would do something contrary to the rules, but where to put the benefit of doubt. In any officiating there's a tendency to make a ruling one way or another in case of doubt. Sometimes the way to rule in such cases is spelled out in the rules themselves, but usually not.

Robert