Is the Ball Dead When the Official Signals But Doesn't Blow His Whistle?

[Robert Goodman]

Any sort of "dead ball" signal by an official is an expression by that official of his judgment that the ball is already dead. Why should that judgment be allowed to be over-ruled? Otherwise, why give all the officials whistles?

The only counter-argument I could see to this one is that "Stop the clock" is to be taken as a signal to the timekeeper only, not the players, and in case the ball wasn't really dead the error can be corrected by taking some time off the clock after the error is discovered. In that case, the official can always blow a whistle if he really wants to kill the ball.