When officially is the ball ready for play?

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by cos_man99

LDUB,

I accidentally left my rulebooks in the crew cheif's van Friday night so I can't cite the rule reference, but I know there is a special exception for delay of game penalties that the clock is never started on the RFP after a delay of game. It is always started on the next snap.

I appreciate your replies. I was not sure we should have penalized. It was difficult to allow a ball to be live while a whistle was blowing and that was what we ultimately went with. We also decided later a little stronger preventative officiating would have prevented the whole thing (i.e. "wait for my whistle").

Same problem as your OP.

Wait for your whistle to what? Start sounding? Finish sounding? Sound for at least 1 second?