Defense encroachment called too late.

[Rob S]

Looking back, we technically should have put the time back on the clock, but we didn't. We were too busy dealing with the fact that we knew we basically had to penalize the offense (or so it seemed to fans and the teams) for a defensive encroachment foul because the play never should have happened. There was no doubt among the R, U, and me as what we needed to do.

I think our HL (who made the call) was timid about blowing his whistle on that play because he had an IW earlier in the game on an illegal formation penality. Not an excuse, but it certainly was not a good first half for him.

[BktBallRef]

Pick it up, wave it off, and take his flag from him!

[verticalStripes]

I agree with Bktballref. Pick it up and eat it. To make matters worse, the coach of B in the situation I described requested a coach-referee conference to discuss a misapplication of a rule!

[bisonlj]

This happened in my son's game last year when his team was on defense. The official who threw the flag was not a licensed official. Just some guy who watches football on TV and bought a shirt. The other two officials were experienced and discussed it. Since it was a 3rd grade game and the encroachment had no impact on the play, they chose to let it stand. They knew the correct call would have been to kill the play before it happened but in this case I understood what they were doing even if it was technically wrong. The one thing they did wrong was signal the penalty was declined. They probably should have waved off the flag. For any HS game (varsity or sub-varsity), I would definitely bring this back.

[ajmc]

Originally Posted by verticalStripes

I agree with Bktballref. Pick it up and eat it. To make matters worse, the coach of B in the situation I described requested a coach-referee conference to discuss a misapplication of a rule!

You both lost me on this. The original indicates this was a Varsity HS game. Clearly a rule was misapplied, as the defensive encroachment (not the official's flag or whistle) killed this play before it began. The play, nor any yardage gained or lost, actually ever happened.

You have to enforce the penalty as a dead ball foul, from the previous spot and take whatever lumps you have coming and then move on with a clear conscience and perhaps a tiny bit of scar tissue you'll carry forward as a reminder.