Officially Speaking: Correcting the call
Editor's Note: Officially Speaking with Steve Hall is a feature that allows readers to ask questions about high school football rules, and will run weekly throughout the season. Hall has been a New Hampshire high school official since 1989 and has officiated more than 200 regular-season varsity games in all five divisions. He has also officiated 10 championship games and more than 25 playoff games. Hall, who is a member of the New Hampshire Football Officials' Association Board of Directors, has been the NHFOA rules interpreter for the last seven years. Questions for Steve can be sent to rbrown@nhfootballreport.com. Questions may be edited for clarity.
Question: I've always wondered what a football official is supposed to do if, in his mind, an incorrect call is made. Let's say a player is called for clipping, but another official didn't see it that way. Do you guys huddle to discuss things, and who has the final say?
A.S., North Conway
Answer: Our objective is to make the correct call every play. Each official has an area of responsibility and coverage, and those areas overlap with other officials' areas. If an official makes a call and another member of the crew disagrees with the call, the officials will usually get together with the referee to discuss the call. The discussion can involve rule interpretation, or it can involve judgment. Occasionally, after such a discussion, the official calling the foul will "eat the flag" if either a rule has not been correctly enforced or if another member of the crew was in a better position to see the play and is certain that his perspective provided a better view. In the unlikely event that the officials cannot agree on the correct call to make, the ultimate decision lies with the referee. The referee will ask questions, listen to both officials, and make his decision. However, it almost never gets down to the referee making a decision between two differing opinions, because oneofficial will almost always know that he either interpreted the rule incorrectly or wasn't in as good a position as his crew mate to make the call.
M.S.G., Concord
Answer: The kicking team can recover a kickoff after it has traveled 10 yards and has contacted the ground. However, the ball cannot be advanced by the kicking team because it becomes dead by rule when the kicking team recovers it. The kicking team is awarded the ball at the spot of the recovery. If the kick ends (i.e., a member of the receiving team gains possession of the kick by holding/controlling it), and the ball then becomes loose as a result of a backward pass or a fumble by the receiving team, then the kicking team could recover the loose ball and advance it, because it is no longer a "kick" once the receiving team possesses the ball.
Question: What happens if a quarterback spikes the ball near the end of a game (or half) to save time, but the ball is snapped before all 11 players are set. I once saw the clock run out while the QB was waiting for the rest of his team.
David R., Exeter
Answer: It would be a foul for an illegal shift if all team members are not simultaneously motionless for one full second prior to the snap. If the team snaps the ball and spikes it under the circumstances described above, the referee could order the clock to start and could even allow the game or half to end if he believed that the team intentionally snapped the ball to conserve time. The reason for this rule is to prevent a team from gaining an advantage by committing a foul. When a foul is committed, the clock is stopped for penalty administration. If there was no rule allowing the referee to start the clock (and allow time to expire) under these circumstances, a team could snap the ball and spike it knowing that their team was not set, and be ready to snap it again and run a play once the penalty was administered.
Question: Steve, at the high school level, and in New Hampshire in particular, do the same officials work together each week? Seems to me this would benefit everyone.
L.B., Manchester
Answer: In New Hampshire, we work in different crews every week. We are assigned games prior to the season by our commissioner, so we know what games we will be working, what position we will be working, and who the
other members of our crew will be, but the crews vary weekly. There are advantages and disadvantages to working with the same crew. One obvious advantage to working the same crew would be the familiarity we would have
with our crew members strengths and weaknesses. However, by working with different people each week, we see a wide variety of officiating styles and abilities, and we are able to emulate the positive qualities of the other officials that we see and avoid any negative aspects of another official's performance. We also rate each other in each game for the purpose of determining playoff assignments. If we worked with the same crew each week, we would have to develop a completely different rating system. Many other states maintain the same crews throughout the year. In those states, either the coaches rate each crew in each game for the purpose of playoff
assignments, or playoff assignments are determined by seniority or some other method. Those systems have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Check the archives for more Officially Speaking features with Steve Hall.
