Fed: 0 players from team B on field

[Robert Goodman]

This comes from a thread at Coach Huey's.

Time expires for a game on a down ending with a fair catch, and the team that made the fair catch, trailing by 2 points, extends the game for a free kick down. No time out is called by either team. Team B, seeing that nothing their players could do on the field could improve their chances, but that possibly a player on the field could commit a foul, withdraws all their players to the bench.

Is team B allowed to "play" with no players on the field? Or is this failure to be ready to play, and delay of game? Is team A allowed to play with just 1 player on the field?

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

This comes from a thread at Coach Huey's.

Time expires for a game on a down ending with a fair catch, and the team that made the fair catch, trailing by 2 points, extends the game for a free kick down. No time out is called by either team. Team B, seeing that nothing their players could do on the field could improve their chances, but that possibly a player on the field could commit a foul, withdraws all their players to the bench.

Is team B allowed to "play" with no players on the field? Or is this failure to be ready to play, and delay of game? Is team A allowed to play with just 1 player on the field?

I'm going to take a wild guess at this and say both would be fine. I'd probably try to get both teams to have 11 players on the field though before I blow the RFP so we don't make a mockery of the situation. Not sure what I would do if either team refused.

[HLin NC]

Actually you would have a violation of 3-6-3:
ART. 3 . . . Failure of a team to play within two minutes after being ordered to
do so by the referee.
PENALTY: (Art. 3) – forfeiture

Team B might not care but I'm sure Team A will get the other 10 out there.

It might be simpler just to invoke 3-1-3 and skip the free kick down.

ART. 3 . . . A period or periods may be shortened in any emergency by agreement of the opposing coaches and the referee. By mutual agreement of the opposing coaches and the referee, any remaining period may be shortened at any time or the game terminated.

[Theisey]

help me fellows... why are we extending the down? I don't see any valid reason too.
Is there something missing from Coach Huey's posting?

[With_Two_Flakes]

I'm no NFHS rules expert (I only get over to the US every 3 or 4 years to do HS ball, we work NCAA in Europe) but I'm with Theisey on this one.

What exactly is extending the period to give them the opportunity to "free kick or snap.....when a fair catch is made"? Don't recall a fair catch being in the list of things that extend the period in Rule 3. If time expired during the play then the game is over.

[HLin NC]

If it were an awarded fair catch, that is considered penalty acceptance for the purposes of extending a period. Of course the OP didn't state it was an awarded fair catch so .......

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by With_Two_Flakes

I'm no NFHS rules expert (I only get over to the US every 3 or 4 years to do HS ball, we work NCAA in Europe) but I'm with Theisey on this one.

What exactly is extending the period to give them the opportunity to "free kick or snap.....when a fair catch is made"? Don't recall a fair catch being in the list of things that extend the period in Rule 3. If time expired during the play then the game is over.

Sorry. It used to be universal that a choice of a free kick would extend the period, but obviously Fed doesn't have that any more. I wanted a situation in which team A could not possibly benefit by recovery of their own free kick, and team B doesn't want to try to run up the score by running back an errant kick, so neither team would have reason to have any players besides the kicker on the field.

So OK, make it a game extended by penalty with a free kick chosen, and it's the same question. If no players other than the kicker could possibly contribute to the decision of the game, would you still require the full teams to be on the field?