I am sure this has been discussed before but we are starting to see this come up in some of our games.
The first sentence in 7-1-5-a-5: No player shall use words or signals that disconcert opponents when they are preparing to put the ball in play.
The last sentence: No player may call defensive signals that simulate the sound or cadence of offensive starting signals.
The last sentence seems pretty obvious. The offense uses, "Hut, Hut" so the defense cannot yell out, "Hut, Hut."
The first sentence has been where we are seeing some issues. Team A is lined up and the linebacker creeps up towards the LOS and in a loud, voice deflecting tone, yells, "SHIFT" or "MOVE" and the defense doesn't actually shift per se, but they quickly move from their right hand being down in a 3 pt stance to putting their left hand down. It scares /"disconcerts" the offense into a false start. We explain to the coach the issue and explain that they can use the command shift and move but their disconcerting tone is what the problem is. The response has been, "Well, if we change our tone we won't be able to cause them to false start". After we handled the situation they somehow managed to still do their shifting and were able to continue giving a verbal command but it was not in any way disconcerting.
What are your thoughts?
