Unfair Act By the Play-by-Play Announcer?

[FLAHL]

This came up at our association meeting on Monday.  The stadium announcer was doing play-by-play commentary during the play ("Handoff to 24, he runs right, cuts back, and is stopped after a gain of 4. That'll bring up 2nd and 6 for the Tigers.") rather than simply announcing the result of the play.  He was doing the same thing, no matter which team had the ball.  The visiting team ran a reverse, and the announcer called it as it was happening - "Handoff to 32, running right, ooh, he hands it to 88 going the other way on a reverse..."  The visiting coach complained to the WH - "The announcer is giving away our plays and helping the defense."  Would you consider this an Unfair Act based on 9-9-1?  Personally I don't think it is, but we had quite a few opposing views at the meeting.

[Rulesman]

I don't, but somewhere there is a protocol printed for stadium announcers and I don't believe it includes a running play-by-play. I would refer the question to the FHSAA.

[maven]

Agree with Rulesman for a long-term solution.

But I would address it on the field, stop play, and instruct game management that it needs to stop. I would wait for confirmation that the message was received.

Had to do that once with an over-zealous baseball announcer....

[TampaSteve]

FHSAA specifically spells out announcer should not speak during a play.
Talk to the coach, tell him to shut it down, or else.  it happens again, hit em.
What county are you in (just PM me on that)? 
I can think of a team in a county north of Hillsborough that wears carolina blue & white who has an annoying announcer such as this. - AND every year he trys to do play-by-play (for folks in person???) and every year the officials give a stern warning and every year it's shut down quickly by the AD.

[Atlanta Blue]

Is it an Unfair Act under 9-9-1?  Not only no, but h3ll no!  You said he was doing it for both teams, so how is it unfair?

But should it be happening?  That's another question, and I agree with the others, no.  Tell game admin to knock it off.  Trust me, the home coach is probably just as irritated by it as well.

[HLinNC]

"giving away our plays"   Chuckle, snicker, guffaw.

Yes he's annoying and the AD needs to can him from the mic.
Giving away plays- really Coach?

"'Hey 1st and 10 for the Fightin Blue Heelers and here comes the good ole 49 Cross Jet X Flat Toss Iso Blast**" is giving away their plays.


**The above play is strictly made up babble but if one of you can draw it up, please do.

[James]

We had an announcer that got carried away for his team, and started saying over the PA if it was a pass or reverse during the play.
We also just took an officials time out and informed the home management that the live play description has to stop, or the PA system needs to be shut down. I believe there was the threat of an UNS on the head coach if they didn't get it sorted out (but it was a while ago - I might be fantasizing a little).

[VALJ]

Can the defensive players REALLY hear the PA announcers doing play by play during the play? 

[TampaSteve]

Can the defensive players REALLY hear the PA announcers doing play by play during the play?

EXACTLY.
Well, let's say they can hear. - can they react in time???   

[Atlanta Blue]

Can the defensive players REALLY hear the PA announcers doing play by play during the play?

If they are hearing him, then they aren't doing their job.

Now, announcing personnel BETWEEN plays is a problem.  Our home announcer has a habit of trying to mention every kid he can, to make the parents happy (we're a private school, and he's always working on those donations to the Annual Fund!).

We had a punt fake where we brought one of our star athletes back onto the field to throw a pass (Gordon Beckham, now the 2B of the Chicago White Sox).  Beckham wasn't normally on that unit, and being the great athlete he was, opponents knew his name.  We go to run the fake, running Beckham out there in a group of players.  We weren't "hiding" him, but we made sure he was part of a group, and not entering alone.

Our announcer blurts out, "And there is Gordon Beckham going out with the punt team, why that's certainly unusual!"  If looks could kill, our head coach would have been guilty of murder that night.

[bama_stripes]

Our announcer blurts out, "And there is Gordon Beckham going out with the punt team, why that's certainly unusual!"  If looks could kill, our head coach would have been guilty of murder that night.

 

[VALJ]

Our announcer blurts out, "And there is Gordon Beckham going out with the punt team, why that's certainly unusual!"  If looks could kill, our head coach would have been guilty of murder that night.

That is tremendous.   

[ECILLJ]

A crew in our Association had a tough call on a Friday night that went against the home team. The call apparently fired up the coach and the fans. Before things cooled down the PA announcer made a point to read the crew members names over the P.A. system. Those were the last words that P.A. announcer said that night, because the Referee promptly had him removed from the crow's nest.