Wednesday, September 17, 1997

Clarifying the rules on some strange plays

By Bill Hart / Abilene Reporter-News

Before we get started, let us get one thing straight: I'm not picking on high school football officials. They do a great job, and, like sports writers -- this one in particular -- they are subject to mistakes.

This is not about their mistakes or correct calls but to clarify some rules of weird plays that occurred last Friday night.

In the Cisco-Albany game, a Cisco back gained a few yards deep. But after he was tackled, an Albany player unintentionally grabbed the Lobo by the face mask. The officials stepped off five yards for the infraction but didn't rule that the down be replayed.

Cisco, thinking it was still third down, was set to go for the first down, when coach Eddie Gill saw the down marker read fourth down and called time out. He wanted to know why it wasn't still third down.

Gill said the official told him that it was fourth down because it was a dead ball foul, meaning the down isn't played over. Later the officials realized their mistake, that it was actually a live ball penalty and they should have replayed the down. But play had resumed, which made it an uncorrectable error.

Lynn Lawhon, president of the Abilene chapter of the Southwest Football Officials Association and a Western Athletic Conference official, said the rule states that any dead ball foul involving a face mask, is a 15-yard penalty.

But when Gill was talking about the incident, he quickly praised the officiating and believes they did a great job.

The other incident happened in the Stamford-Colorado City game. The Stamford fan who called us wasn't upset over the call but wanted to know if I had ever seen it before and wanted an explanation of the rule.

Here's what happened:

A Stamford back broke loose on a long run,but fumbled at the end of the play. Listen to both sides and you get two stories. One said Stamford fumbled after the player hit the ground, the other says Colorado City recovered while the play was in progress.

However, after a discussion, the officials ruled an inadvertent whistle had been blown on the play and the down must be replayed.

Lawhon said the rule states that if an inadvertent whistle is blown while the play is still in progress, the team with the ball has the option of either taking the play or going back to the original line of scrimmage and replay the down.

Stamford coach Jerry Taylor didn't go on to the field to approach the officials, so he said he didn't know if an option was given or not. Colorado City coach Bill Grissom said he wasn't told of any option, but it was obvious to both sides that Stamford would have wanted the down replayed rather than give up the ball.

In this case, an experienced official invoked referee's discretion to solve the problem. He has that authority, according to Lawhon. There was a question as to who was in possession of the ball at the time the whistle was blown, so he thought the equitable thing to do was play the down over.

After reviewing the game film, Taylor firmly believes that the ground caused the fumble, which means Stamford should have retained the ball at the spot. But he's quick to point out officials do not have the luxury of instant replay to help them make a decision.

"That call didn't cost us the game and I can't complain about the officiating because I made a lot of mistakes myself coaching," Taylor said.

Had he seen the inadvertent whistle before? Yes, in one of Stamford's playoff games last year, against Shallowater. One of his players intercepted a pass and returned it a few yards. The whistle blew early, but Stamford was given the ball and the yardage.

The hardest job for an official in any sport is making a snap decision on unusual plays that may happen only once a year. My hat is off to these people because they have a lot of rules to keep up with and new ones are added each year.

As we saw Monday night, even the NFL officials can make a mistake.