Live Ball Foul Called as Dead Ball

[UpNorthRef]

Originally Posted by Reffing Rev.

I moved last year and I've hooked up with a crew of some local guys who average in the 80s on their annual test. Most of our JV games I WH, and for our V games I'm the 6th man so I go where I'm needed, which this year has me at WH for about half of our games.


One of the plays that they don't get is that they always want to call Illegal Formation a Dead Ball Foul. When A lines up with 6 on the line they kill it at the snap. I've tried to tell them over and over again, but they're not getting it. I've explained that it is a foul at the snap because nothing illegal happens before the ball is snapped, so this is a case where the snap "causes" the foul, but the ball is already live and no foul causes a live ball to become dead. They're stuck because Encroachment is a foul whenever it occurs, even though I've explained in HS that is a foul when it occurs not at the snap like NCAA. I've learned that their practice before I showed up was to call all fouls at the snap as dead ball fouls. Motion, Shift, Formation, all of it.

2 Questions.

1. Any ideas how I can help them?

2. In our JV and V games when they kill a play, what would you do?
Option 1. Wave off the flag and replay because of the IW.
Option 2. Enforce the foul which occurred prior to the IW because the IW came after the snap (and after the foul)
Option 3. ? ? ?

Well, Rev, I have preached to my crew to learn what makes the ball become live. There are only a couple of fouls that are violations prior to the snap (ie: delay of game, false start, encroachment, illegal substitution) and those should not be that hard to remember. That is easier than trying to explain each and every foul that may occur at the snap (motion, shift, illegal formation (including illegal numbering), etc. . If anything, most officials are afraid to whistle a play down because the crew chief has drilled into them about the evils of an inadvertent whistle. v

I would definitely be looking for another crew if they refuse to understand a basic principal such as what you indicated.