This does not matter to me what level this play takes place. If I do not see leather or it is hard to determine if the ball is dead, I am not killing the play. Your whistle is not going to automatically stop players from trying to hit each other or fighting for yardage. The play is already dead by rule and for some reason players seems to know when to stop all other times without a whistle.

The play ends by everyone clearly seeing a tackle and everyone stops. But if the ball is in a huge pile and we cannot see the ball, we are not blowing the play dead with a whistle. We have some very experienced officials on my current crew and it is not uncommon to not have a whistle on multiple plays during a game. And what difference does it make anyway? If a player runs out of bounds by several yards and is hit, do you not throw the flag because the whistle was blown? This is a football fundamental. This is coach speak about the whistle. As officials we should not be using this as our standard to call fouls or to kill the play IMHO.

I have several friends that are veterans and my father is buried in a Veteran's Cemetery in Memphis, Tenn. I also have a childhood friend that is going to Iraq at the beginning of December and happened to work at Fort Hood, TX. I pray for all of those that serve and served. And my former Referee was in the Navy and served in Somalia. I even dated a girl this year that was in the Air Force and served in Iraq (no longer dating her, but she is one of the most amazing people I have met). This day means a lot to me and those close to me. ;)

Peace

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on the whistle thing, but we're on the same page as far as the men and women in uniform.

My father was an artillery sergeant from '46-'64 so I proudly call myself an "Army brat"....saw a lot of the world at an early age...

As well, two of the guys from our Association have each done multiple tours in Afghanistan.....extraordinary stuff from where I sit....always a sombre day...

Yes we will and I am OK with that.

My dad served in Korea and he never talked about his service. I really did not know how much he did until he was gone. I really wish I had the opportunity to talk to him about his service today considering how we treat soldiers today. But the interesting thing, every Patriotic Holiday he put an American Flag on our house. He never explained it and commented on it. But what I did gain is a respect for the flag and in my little way I was the Color Guard at Missouri Military Academy back in 87 and 88. And my respect and love for the colors came from my dad. I am glad he passed that on to me without really saying much of a word. The flag from his funeral is still sitting in my Mom's bedroom. This day means a lot to me and I miss my dad.

Enough of this, let us get back to talking football. :(

You bet.

Having said that, our season up here is pretty much done, which is kind of a shame as we've had (for the most part) a very mild fall here, so we could actually play some more games if there were any...gonna be +50F this weekend which is EXTREMELY unusual for this time of year here. We've got some Provincial Semi-finals this weekend and Finals next weekend and then the "big ones" weekend of Nov 28/29.

The Vanier (Cdn College Championship) is in Quebec City 11/28 and the Grey Cup is in Calgary 11/29. Hoping to be assigned to one of the HS Finals next weekend here in Edmonton and I will be at the Grey Cup as a fan for sure...blood alcohol level guaranteed not to be below .08!

No, it's not about player safety. It's about whether he's down. If his forward progress is stopped, then by all means blow your whistle if you want. Because at that point he's down and the ball is dead.

Blowing the whistle doesn't make anyone safer, it's just a recipe for an IW.

Right. Only in Rugby Union (not sure about Rugby League) did they change the tackle rule to include cases of laying on top of another player on the ground, as a type of "electricity" or "contagion".

But that's a textbook case of another way to make a ball in player possession dead, forward progress stopped. It's not an ad hoc ruling, it's part of the rules.

I think what they're saying is that you might rule the runner held with progress stopped sooner under some conditions than under other conditions, based on relative danger.