Ufl
 

Just got done flipping thru the stations and came across a UFL game - LV vs NY I think.

Watched one series out of curiosity. It ended with a LV field goal. One thing that caught my attention was the whistles, or rather lack thereof. In the whole series I heard two, once after a completed pass and the receiver was getting pushed backwards and then another for a DOG penalty. Other times there were runs up the middle, passes caught and carried OOB, incomplete passes - normal football plays - and didn't hear a whistle once. Quite odd.

Listen closely to an NFL game, you'll see some similarity there. There are some plays they don't even blow the whistle, similar to the ones you've described. Many times the whistle blow to alert players that the play is dead, especially if there's some action away from the ball where the players are not seeing the ball.

This is not that unusual. My crew has the same philosophy when it comes to our blowing the whistle. If we do not see the ball or know if a players is clearly down, we do not blow the whistle. And the guys that basically taught us are guys that work higher levels.

Peace

Not to discount or disagree with the other posters but perhaps the network covering the game has cheap field microphone(s) and you're just not hearing them.

I have attended clinics conducted by NFL officials. Their philosphy regarding
whistles is one or none.

And we go by that philosophy on our HS crew as well. Only one coach ever raised heck when a play ended and noone blew their whistle. He asked, "as part of your job, aren't you supposed to blow your whistle when the play ends?" I answered, "as a part of your job, aren't you supposed to teach the players to recognize when the play's over? Oh yeah, apparently you've done a great job because they recognized that play just ended without our whistles." He was VERY VERY quiet the rest of the game. :D