Rule 1-1-6 states : The referee has authority to rule...on any situation not covered by the rules..." This is usually only invoked when something wild / confusing / unusual just occurred. We've had a few here in Maine but the best story I ever heard came from a Tennessee member several years ago : (1) Playoff game, statewide TV & ball at midfield....
when
: (1) A1 runs sweep toward sidelines, is hit & fumbles; (B2 dives for loose ball, misses, slides OOB and crashes into asst. coach & ballboy standing in the then coaches' box; (3) Ballboy goes flying in one direction while
(now the fun begins) ball he was holding goes flying in the other - :!#onto the field; (4) A2 scoops up one ball while B3 scoops up the other; (5) They both head toward TD territory
; (6) TV reportedly showed a full view of --
-- one third of the players in one endzone with two officials signaling TD
, another third in the opposite endzone with two officials signaling TD ,and the final third standing at midfield with the two remaining officials, saying what the
just happened??. After a 15 minute conference,
the officials decided to treat it as they would an inadvertent whistle, giving the ball back to the fumbler at the spot of the fumble but with no option to replay the down. They then added
a delay of game penalty on the team whose ballboy went airborne as he shouldn't have been in the then coaches' box. When the Tennessee guy was telling us this, there was but one lady in the group and she had a very motherly question : "Was the little ballboy hurt?" The answer was : "Not physically,Mam. Not physically." Any of you have any good ones??
