Post by JugglingReferee on Aug 3, 2014 7:44:00 GMT -5
It was a play very similar to the end zone TD pass involving the replacement officials.
Scenario:
This is men's league football, who do not play down by contact. Iow, when you're down, you're down. Age 22+, some players in their late 40s/early 50s still playing. We use 6 officials in this league. In Canadian 6-official crews, we have 2 deep guys on a 65-yard wide field. One deep guy is on the sideline (outside deep), the other deep official, at his discretion, somewhere between mid-field and his hash marks (called the inside deep guy). Which is which? Well, the deep guy on the sideline is on the short side of the field. So yes, that means we may have to bounce back and forth from being the inside deep guy to/from the outside deep guy. Think of it as a 7-man system, with one position missing, which is covered by the wing who goes down field if that area is threatened, and the inside deep guy roams over as the pass in airborne.
I'm a deep official on this game, and on this play, the inside deep guy. The "name" of my position is irrelevant.
So we had inclement weather in the region most of the day, and during the night game, the rain held off, but we did have mist/fog. So the visitors are losing by 2 majors, but marching semi-late in the 4th. The pass goes deep to this area between the wing moving down field, and myself. The pass may have been around 40 yards long. I see the two players go up for the ball, and both get their mitts on it. They both come down to the ground and the ball doesn't pop out anywhere; so it's likely we have a catch. Like a good deep guy, I keep the players in front of me; I'm about 12-15 yards away. Both players (one landing on top of the other) went down with their backs to me. That means I don't know for sure who has it. I also see that the wing isn't making a call, likely due to distance and perhaps some due to visibility. I process this all as I'm running in from 12-15 yards away.
When I get there, both players have their hands/arms on the ball, although the Team B player "moreso". Had the Team B player not been involved, the Team A player easily had enough of the ball to survive contact with the ground.
So I rule simultaneous possession, Team A retains the ball. (Had this been in the EZ, yes, I would have had a TD.) My thinking was that for a change of possession, it must be without question that it's an interception. And this play didn't have that.
Team B goes nuts. Eventually had to flag a Team B player for bad sportsmanship for using a swear word toward me.
Just thought I'd share. Fwiw, I'm 100% confident that I made the right call.
Scenario:
This is men's league football, who do not play down by contact. Iow, when you're down, you're down. Age 22+, some players in their late 40s/early 50s still playing. We use 6 officials in this league. In Canadian 6-official crews, we have 2 deep guys on a 65-yard wide field. One deep guy is on the sideline (outside deep), the other deep official, at his discretion, somewhere between mid-field and his hash marks (called the inside deep guy). Which is which? Well, the deep guy on the sideline is on the short side of the field. So yes, that means we may have to bounce back and forth from being the inside deep guy to/from the outside deep guy. Think of it as a 7-man system, with one position missing, which is covered by the wing who goes down field if that area is threatened, and the inside deep guy roams over as the pass in airborne.
I'm a deep official on this game, and on this play, the inside deep guy. The "name" of my position is irrelevant.
So we had inclement weather in the region most of the day, and during the night game, the rain held off, but we did have mist/fog. So the visitors are losing by 2 majors, but marching semi-late in the 4th. The pass goes deep to this area between the wing moving down field, and myself. The pass may have been around 40 yards long. I see the two players go up for the ball, and both get their mitts on it. They both come down to the ground and the ball doesn't pop out anywhere; so it's likely we have a catch. Like a good deep guy, I keep the players in front of me; I'm about 12-15 yards away. Both players (one landing on top of the other) went down with their backs to me. That means I don't know for sure who has it. I also see that the wing isn't making a call, likely due to distance and perhaps some due to visibility. I process this all as I'm running in from 12-15 yards away.
When I get there, both players have their hands/arms on the ball, although the Team B player "moreso". Had the Team B player not been involved, the Team A player easily had enough of the ball to survive contact with the ground.
So I rule simultaneous possession, Team A retains the ball. (Had this been in the EZ, yes, I would have had a TD.) My thinking was that for a change of possession, it must be without question that it's an interception. And this play didn't have that.
Team B goes nuts. Eventually had to flag a Team B player for bad sportsmanship for using a swear word toward me.
Just thought I'd share. Fwiw, I'm 100% confident that I made the right call.