Cheating Ba$+!rds
 

In the third quarter the linesman notices that the visitors are correctly guessing each play that the home offense is running. Great preparation? I think not. Later on he discovers that the defensive coordinator for the visitors listens to the play call from the home sidelines then refers to a play card and tells his players what play is coming. When confronted the visitor's Def Coordinator tells the linesman that they found one of home's play cards (the ones they wear on their wrists) on the ground before the game and "have been using it all game". What do you do? At the time of the discovery the score is:

A. 21-0 in favor of home
B. 21-0 in favor of visitor

As R? I do nothing.

As the other team? Figure out a way to use it against them at a critical moment. And beat the heck out of the kid that lost his playbook!

In A.... I refer to the visitors as "stupid" instead of "cheating". (they know all the plays and still are down 3 TD's ???)

In B... I ask the visitors for a copy of the card so we can give it to the umpire. Gotta take care of our boy in the middle....

Can't do anything. If you call it cheating, it's between the teams and the state association. No where in the rule book does it indicate that team cannot "steal" plays from the other team.

Agrivating, yes! Injustice, maybe. But not a crew's responsibility.

Any of these apply?

NFHS

9-9-1 A player or nonplayer or persons not subject to the rules shall not hinder play by an unfair act which has no specific rule coverage.

9-9-5 Neither team shall commit any act which, in the the opinion of the referee tends to make a travesty of the game.

NCAA

9-2-3(c) An obviously unfair act not specifically covered by the rules occurs during the game.

No, not to me.

I still don't think these apply. This is not a referee's invening area.

I get ready to work the next play. That's it.

Nothing,

Nada.

Zilch.

Um... How about ask the Linesman to quit confronting the coaches.

Nope, even I, the king of rule 9-9 would say, no rule was broken. :D

I would tell the home coach to have the home AD write and complain to the other AD and/or their state. Otherwise, not our problem.

The only type of game I think that'd be unfair in is card games. In other games where signaling goes on between players (and in some cases coaches), stealing signals, and trying to keep them from being stolen, is a traditional part of play. That's part of the fun -- the head games.

I could imagine situations in which there could be some kind of league sanction outside the bounds of the game playing rules for certain methods of espionage, such as having a spy player or coach on the opposing team. That'd be the same sort of thing as if a player or coach is bribed to throw a game -- not the position of game officials to enforce or even try to detect, but the league could have rules about it.

I've had these play cards pulled off of players during a tackle and we will try to get to them if they're laying there and give them back to the player or coach. Had a JV game a few weeks back where the defense picked it up and handed it back to the player. Had he tried to keep it, I would've intervened and probably told him to give it up, but that's the risk of using these things.

If the opposition were to get ahold of one and no one saw it....tough break. To me, that's no different than one of his kids leaving his cheat sheet card or playbook laying on the sidelines during pregame and the other team finding it.

Not much you can do about it, IMO...and the risk a team takes by using such.

They should have a back-up plan for using signals or have the QB or another player run the play in.