Coach going across the field

[jchamp]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

"Travesty of the game" would be an outright ridiculous call. You're taking the football game as subsuming the whole world, instead of being just one part of a person's life. Obviously nonplayers can leave their team box to use the bathroom, go talk to a friend, etc. If two coaches want to have a meeting, that's a level of conduct outside of and superseding the game, not part of the game and its administration. It does not interfere with the game, and the game should not interfere with it.

If the coaches have agreed to have a game, gotten it sanctioned by whatever authority, hired officials, invited fans (and maybe charged admission) and trained their players, then for the period of time that the game occurs, that game and its rules are their life. It is so because they have agreed to make it so.

The rules demand that unless there is a good reason for one coach to NEED to talk to another, AND the WH allows the conversation, he's not going to cross the field without penalty.

We're not gonna hold up action because two guys who should be working want to have tea and crumpets at mid-field.