Statistics for blocked punt

[Texas Aggie]

Radio: a lot of stat stuff is built into the baseball rules, so those guys over there may know quite a bit about baseball stats, but in general football officials don't concern ourselves much with stats. The closest many of us come is turning in foul reports, which is for our benefit and not the stat guys. A lot of folks think bean bags are dropped so the stat guys will know, for example, how long the punt return was. In fact, its strictly for our own benefit in knowing enforcement spots and nothing more. It wouldn't be unusual to see 2 bean bags down on a punt.

2 or 3 years ago, I was up in the press box and a newspaper guy asked about the 2 bean bags. I told him what they were for and he was rather surprised. Later in the game, there was an interception inside the 5 and the back judge (very good that night) correctly dropped a bag. "I guess he forgot to bag the other inteceptions," the reporter said. I got to explain the momentum rule.

[stratref]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

...Later in the game, there was an interception inside the 5 and the back judge (very good that night) correctly dropped a bag. "I guess he forgot to bag the other inteceptions (sic)," the reporter said. I got to explain the momentum rule.

I am guessing that the reporter's head exploded when that was explained.

Jasper

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by stratref

I am guessing that the reporter's head exploded when that was explained.

Jasper

Heh. Reminds me of when Marty Glickman was announcing HS varsity games on TV in the NYC metro area on Sat. mornings. In a game being played under Fed rules (or at least an approximation of them), on 4th & very long, A1 got a bad snap, resulting in a broken play during which he went beyond the NZ, saw he couldn't make the line to gain, and punted -- good punt too. An official flagged it, and team B accepted the penalty for "illegal handling of the ball" -- the signal interpreted generically by Glickman that way, who insisted, approximately, "Not many of you know this, because it's rarely done, but you can punt that ball any time. It didn't matter that he was past the line of scrimmage." Said it about 3 times, too. He sent someone to the sideline with a microphone to determine what the foul was, while harping on what a good and legal play that punt was.

It was a good play, because the penalty at that time was just an ordinary all-but-one-spot, repeat-the-down affair, and team A got off a good punt when they repeated 4th down about 8 yards behind the previous spot (15 behind the SOF). And under NFL & NCAA rules of the time, the punt would've been legal. It was about 2 downs later when an official explained the foul to the person carrying the field microphone, and then Glickman went silent until he had to announce the next play.