I had a high school game many years ago where the offensive team told everyone they were taking a knee. The losing team just stood there except for one young man. He blew right through and just blasted the QB after his knee was down. We then proceeded to have to break up the brawl that ensued. I had a line judge punched by the offending player when he was trying to get him off the field.

Perhaps the Arena Football rule: after the one-minute warning (translate that to two, obviously) in the 4th quarter, if the offense has the lead and doesn't gain yardage on a play, the clock stops.

That certainly explains how it could be done, but if we want to watch arena football, we could watch arena football.

I don't officiate football, so this is from a fan's perspective (not a fan of either of these 2 teams, just in general a fan...).

A question was posed by Mike Golic, and I think it is a fair question. I am paraphrasing the situation/question.

If the offense gets to go into "victory" formation, and the defense is supposed to honor that to avoid injury, etc., why can't the defense do the same thing? For example, 5 seconds remain, defense is ahead by 7, offense has 4th and 20 from their own 25. The chances of any "hail Mary" pass play working is exceedingly slim. Why can't the defense go into its "victory" formation, inform the offense they are not going to rush the passer, and now the offense is obligated by "unwritten rule" to just quit?

Golic further made the point that the injury argument is hollow, since it was obvious when the defense lined up they are coming. If the offense chose to ignore that, and not line up to protect themselves and their QB, any injury was their own fault.

Golic needs to stick to radio and not try to use his brain so much. That's the dumbest analogy I've heard in quite a while. It never occurred to this football genius that the offense and defense are different because the offense has possession of the ball?

Actually that was Golic's major point...just because they have possession of the ball does not mean they get to dictate to the defense - by dint of "unwrtieen rule" - that the game is over. If so, then there should be a related "unwritten rule" that allows the defense to dictate to the offense "Hey, this game is in the bag so we are going to just wrap it up now - don't try to run a play or anything."

You missed his point.

First, it's unwritten rule that the offense but not the defense gets to do this. Golic doesn't get to invent his own unwritten rules, even if he doesn't like the ones that exist.

Unwritten rules exist at the pleasure of the players: if enough players abandon this one, it will go away. :shrug:

And yes, the offense gets to decide whether to take a knee, because they control the ball and the clock. The defense can stop the clock only with a time out. That's not dictating anything to the defense, it's clock management. The defense can't do the same.

Gosh, thanks so much for that explanation. You really cleared things up for Golic.

Oh wait...maybe you should send that explanation to him directly...:rolleyes: