Proper spot and down?

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Robert ... you seem to be wanting to say the current way we deal with these situations is wrong, but you offer no converse way to deal with them. I've lost your point, if there was one. Can you clarify what you are really getting at here. Just seems like pointless disagreement for the sake of disagreement at this point.

I have a couple of points. One of them is that control of the ball does not require hands on it, and I gave a practical example from my coaching that shows a player pinning the ball to his body with proximal parts of the upper limb has better control of it than does another player trying to use hands to take it away.

The other is that although a ball's being momentarily sandwiched between the front of a player's frame and the ground may not even satisfy the idea of control of it, calling it in possession at that point will give you a clearer possession ruling than you will almost always get by allowing play to continue and having bodies pile up around and hide it. It may not be what the rule literally demands, but it will save you from situations where your eventual ruling will be more arbitrary and no more justified. It would be hypocritic to argue otherwise.