Dead-Ball Foul Sequence/Mechanics

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

You're not a basketball official, are you?

Basketball? bleh.....all credit to the guys who do it. But for me, basketball ranks one very small step above soccer. BLEH!

[MD Longhorn]

Whistle in, drop it at the snap.

Whistle first, always. If time is critical, stop the clock first. If not, flag then whistle, grabbing your flag and tossing it as you begin the signal.

[With_Two_Flakes]

Not a big fan of whistle in your mouth as it is too easy (especially for newer officials) to remember to spit it out at the snap. That will eventually lead to an IW "as sure as eggs is eggs", and an IW is about the worst thing we can do as officials.

I don't want to get into a fingerwhistle / wrist lanyard / neck lanyard arguement about their pro's and con's as those have been many and varied over the years on our forums, but what I would say is that I don't feel I suffer a time delay in raising my finger whistle to my mouth to kill a play pre-snap.

Equally before I got a finger whistle, I would hold my lanyard whistle in my non-flag throwing hand (but away from my mouth) pre-snap and drop it at the snap.

I'll whistle and flag pretty much simultaneously and then stop the clock. In 25 years I've never had anyone complain about time running off the clock due to the time it took to get the whistle to my lips. Whereas I've seen lots of grief from coaches about IW's.