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Football Officiating => National Federation Discussion => Topic started by: Bucky on July 17, 2025, 09:13:39 PM
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If you have an Inadvertent signal but no whistle, do you let the play continue?
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Welcome, Bucky, to our forum. I hope you find it both informative and entertaining.
We had one several years ago where a wing official , standing in front of B's bench, started to raise his hand with signal #7 (the dead ball signal) as he felt the runner MIGHT be down. I was R and along vwith U and the opposite wing clearly saw that he wasn't down and he ran for a ^good. B's coach was screaming that he stopped coaching when he saw the hand start to go up. We conferenced to decide if any B player saw the signal and stopoed playing :!#. The play had occurred on in the side zone opposite B's bench and all players were focused on the play and not the far away wing official. I then announced : "The inadverent signal had NO baring on the plasy and the ^TD stands tiphat: ".
Some were ;D happy , some >:( were not.
The following Monday I phoned NFHS to get their opinion. Thr rules editior's repsonse we handled it correctly. He reinforced that Rule 1-1-6 (the God rule) is in the book for such situations. He gave me a play that had occurred elsewhere that season :
I : 1/G @ B's 3, A false starts;
II: Now 1/G @ B's 8, runner is stopped at B's 4.
III: Wing official mistakes 5 yardline for goal line and signals ^good
IV: Now 2/G @ B's 4.
A couple of days later B's AD phoned to say that they had reviewed the video more times than they needed to and agreed that we did the right thing yEs:.
Question you need to ask : DID THE INADVERTENT SIGNAL HAVE ANY BARING ON THE PLAY ??? ??? ???
IF IT DID, TREAT AS AN INADVERTANT WHISTLE pi1eOn
IF IT DIDN'T , LET THE PLAY STAND. tiphat: