Offensive Pass Interference
 

This might be a little bit of a rant, but sometimes we need those.

A couple of days ago I was working BJ and against one team I had 5 obvious Offensive Pass Interference Calls. Every time their team ran a pass play the unintended recievers were blocking downfield. Their fans and coaches were livid at the 15 yards and LOD call. Their coach said that they've been running those plays all season and haven't had this called once. (It was week 5) I know no one likes the Fed OPI rule, but why can't we call what we see so the next guy who does his job doesn't have to suffer because the guy before him didn't make the tough call?

Wishful thinking my friend, but unfortunately it will never happen especially on judgement calls. I think all of us feel this frustration from time to time and we all try to make correct calls but the human element make us all unique and therefore your bound to have some inconsistency in judgement ,but never should with the rule interpretations.
My advise would be to not let it get to you. I learned this as well.

Are your calls situations where A blocks B downfield before the ball is thrown?

Half the time I throw a flag for live ball penalties a coach is yelling that he has been doing it that same way all season without penalty. I would take any such claim with a big grain of salt.

That did remind me of the a funny coach that yelled that out during a pre-season scrimmage.

"We ran that last week and they didn't flag it". That is a a very common statement. I have heard that before and then contacted the previous crew and found out they were flagging whatever it was that the coach said they didn't get flagged for.

Tell the coach, "it is right in the book that an offensive player blocking downfield is OPI. I am making the correct call, and if you did it other games, it should have been called. If not, they were wrong, but not me. Keep doing it and it should get called every time." I don't know what he could say to that.

OPI is a really serious penalty in NFHS.

A few years ago in a JV game I had a receiver block a defender and another receiver came underneath and caught the ball. OPI!

When I reported it to the referee he said that was not a foul and the other official on the three man crew backed it up.

Point being, I think a large number of officials do not know the rule, therefore, teams get away with it all the time.

Last Friday we had the visiting team SCREAMING that my HL was missing this type of play. I had the QB, so I don't know what supposedly happened. My HL told me that supposedly the A player down field from where the receiver actually caught the ball was supposedly blocking downfield while the ball was in the air.

It seems to me that if A has two receivers and the downfield receiver is committing a foul, our BJ MUST have this call.

Any insight to this would be appreciated.

In your situation, the BJ would be the primary official responsible for this call.

The wings and the BJ all have responsibility for OPI. Unlike defensive pass interference, offensive pass interference can occur both before the pass is thrown and also away from the ball so everyone has to watch for it.

It seems quite excessive to have OPI before the ball is thrown.

Why is there no offensive illegal contact?

On 4D, OPI is 15y + a turnover! While the ball is in the air, each team has equal right to the ball. With the ball still in the passer's hands, B has less right to the ball, since A still has it!

I think OPI prior to the ball being thrown being a turnover needs to be changed!

I agree with you. How many times are you going to flag A for blocking down field? IF it happens away from the play, never. After a catch, never, while the ball is in the air, maybe but it better be in the vicinity.

In my mind, it is defintely OPI if the block were to free up the player to whom the pass is eventually thrown. As for after the catch, by definition, it is impossible to have OPI here. An argument can be made for not calling OPI when the pass is in the air and the pass is thrown somewhere else. There are not any catchability requirements for DPI, why then should this matter for the offense? In addition, the "vicinity" rule is only in effect for contact by B. Now it is true that we need some common sense about it, but it is impossible to say that contact was away from the play before the pass was even thrown.

How many times will I call OPI when A blocks downfield? 100% of the time. Same with away from the ball.

If A88 goes down field and blocks, B knows that it's a run and breaks off coverage. A88 has now opened up himself and every other receiver on the field. Not to call this OPI is cheating B.

There is no need for A to block on this play. Why would you let a foul that can have a huge impact on the game go by?

Feel free to lobby for a rule change, but until then, you have to have to make the call.

Big deal. OPI for years until ~1970 was always a turnover in NCAA. There was no distinction until then between offensive and defensive pass interference; the penalty was 1st down to the team interfered with at the spot of the interference. I think the Canadian rule was changed at about the same time. (Fed has had a penalty from the previous spot for a long time, going back to when NCAA did that too -- as they now do again.)

However, at that time, there was also no such thing as pass interference by either team before the pass was thrown. That's why crossing patterns were so much more popular at that time -- to pick off the defender.

Robert

And one that I freaking hate.

I wish we could say, "Last week, our crew had a coach who knew the rules. How unlucky are we?"