Not a FED rule...yet

[voiceoflg]

Personally I would like to see this rule at the FED level, but it hasn't happened yet. A few officials apparently thought it was.

USC before TD

There wasn’t much to celebrate after a 34-0 loss to Heritage, but at least North Murray coach Larry Cornelius was right in his argument with members of the Northwest Georgia Football Officials Association even though a touchdown — which should have stood — was taken off the board.

With Heritage leading 7-0, Mountaineers’ quarterback Brady Swilling hit receiver Jacob Mays on a fly route. Mays caught the ball at about the 40 yard line and raced toward the end zone. But inside the 7-yard line, Mays turned around, slowed and backpedaled — he never stopped running — and looked at the Heritage defenders. Mays then turned back facing the Heritage end zone for the score.

But the referee threw a penalty flag and tagged Mays with an unsportsmanlike conduct call. The penalty was marked off 15 yards from the 2-yard line and the touchdown was erased from the scoreboard. The Mountaineers would later fumble to end the drive, but the touchdown should have stood.

In a much-publicized effort to reduce taunting and unsportsmanlike conduct, the NCAA has adopted a regulation that if a player is ruled to have committed a taunting violation while scoring, the score is removed and the team is penalized. Two state high school football associations in the nation follow NCAA rules. Georgia isn’t one of them.

Georgia High School Association games are governed by the National Federation of State High School Associations, and the much stricter taunting rules have yet to be adopted into the high school rulebook.

Cornelius said he spoke with NGFOA director Greg Norton on Saturday and was issued an apology.

“I explained to him the situation and went straight to him rather than going to the GHSA,” Cornelius said. “(Norton) said, ‘You are 100-percent correct, and we have already had a conversation with the officials, who are very upset at the mistake.’ It doesn’t help our situation, but I understand that referees make a mistake. The bad thing is that it isn’t a lapse in judgment. It is just a matter of knowing the rules. It wasn’t the play that defined the game, but it definitely was a momentum shift.”

Norton acknowledged the incorrect ruling when reached on Saturday.

“The rule for NCAA and the National Federation are different,” Norton said. “It should have been penalized from the succeeding spot with the option of the penalty being taking on the extra-point attempt or the ensuing kickoff.”

/end

Personally I would love to see that rule at the HS level. If the kids act like they've been there before, they don't have that problem.