Question on coach coming onto field

[infamous540]

What's the rule regarding a coach coming onto the field not during a timeout. Here is the scenario a coach apparently wanted an explanation of something and wasn't getting the answer from the official on his side line so he comes out to the middle of the field to talk to the white hat. Now his team was out of timeouts and while he was leaving the field he got q chance to talk to his players for a few seconds.

The ref on his sideline was clearly trying to keep him from coming onto the field and ushered him off quickly after he reached mid field but this gave him the chance to stop the play clock from starting and gave him the ability to talk to his players. This happened in the 4th qtr with under 3 mins to play, it is my understanding this should have been an unsportsmanlike penalty but no flag was thrown.

 

[Hampton Roads 6]

there should have been a flag,

with 3 minutes to go, he should have had a TO left.

 

[White hat]

There is no cut and dry answer here. It's 100 percent on context -- what's the issue and what's being said.

A coach who is out there to complain, criticize or be a jerk makes this flag the easiest of the night.

Coaches know the rules and this almost never happens. It hasn't happened in one of my games, ever, that I can recall.

We don't know what the coach asked, said, or needed to know. We also don't know what he said to the player. I don't know if the game you're refereing to was close, was important, or any number of variables.

For instance, Iast year I had a play in a big game, close at the end, where a player was on the edge of costing his team. One of the officials was seen giving #75 an earful and the coach wanted to know what was being said. He came out there to ask if #75 was being a knucklehead and when I said yes, he said thank you and walked off, stopping to tell his captain to be a leader and not let 75 cost them. I had no problem with any of this.

Last night, in the first quarter of my game one team's offense was clicking. It was moving, 6-7 yards a play, right down the field. Suddenly the upmire signals time out and tells me a player from defense is bleeding. He cut his hand pretty good. He knew he was going to have to go off, but he dropped his mouthpiece and it was a dark color, so it took a few seconds to find it. The offensive coach wanted to know what the deal was -- all he saw was a timeout, then a bunch of people standing around looking at the ground. The injured kid wasn't on the ground so the coach ddin't even know there was an injury. Both bands were there and at least one was playing. It just happened that my back was to the offensive sideline so I didn't hear him hollaring. Finally I heard it and turned around and he was 10 feet from me, a long way onto the field. He said "what's going on?" and I said a player was bleeding but lost his mouthpiece. He said "OK," and left. by rule, I could have flagged that, but there's no way on earth I'm flagging a coach for that.

So you can see, unless you know what the issue was or what was said, there's no way to know if that should have been a flag or not.

 

[infamous540]

I completely understand, but just to give some context to the question the score was 7-3 3:00 or so in the game the two teams were battling for first place in the district and probably home field in the playoffs. Right before the incident their was a pass interfere call on the D after they walked off the 15 yards from the previous spot is when the coach for the team on offense came out his team was also the one trailing. And the play clock had already been started, now I will say it didn't cost my team the win so not too big of a deal I just wanted some clarity on it. But I do understand the ultimate determining factor to flag or not would have been what was being discussed and since I was sitting at the top of the bleachers I couldn't answer that. But the coach for my team wasn't too happy about it, and just a side note the two coaches were college teammates and frat brothers also the head coach of the other team use to be an assistant for my school, so a bit of a friendly rivalry their.

Once again thanks for all your answers on here, I know I'm much more informed as a fan watching the games from your explanations on here.

 

[Fadamor]

If a coach has a question about the application of a rule, he can request a coach/referee conference even if he was out of time outs. If it turns out he's correct, then the issue will be corrected and no penalty is assessed. If he's incorrect and the rule had been correctly applied, then it costs him a time out, or it costs him a five yard penalty for delay of game if he's out of time outs and in your scenario the clock would start on the ready for play if it had been running before he requested the conference. If he's trying to ask a question about what a rule says, the officials are not on the field to be teaching the rulebook to coaches during the game and if he doesn't like the answer (which will no doubt be VERY abbreviated), perhaps a little more time spent in the ruleboodk is in order PRIOR to the season. If the coach is questioning a judgement call by an official, he's facing an unsportsmanlike conduct flag. In most cases judgement call questions are ignored by the wing officials because most coaches watch NFL Films and think it's okay to question every little thing. Only if the coaches get really obnoxious with the judgement call questions will the wing officials respond, and rarely is it with an answer the coach will like. It usually includes a flag. You'll note that in NONE of the scenarios above is the coach allowed on the field when there's no time out in effect.

When a coach does what you described, the wing official should have dropped a flag for unsportmanlike conduct on the coach because HE already knows what the question the coach wants answered is about AND he already knows that the coach has no legitimate reason for being on the field. With the exception of the coach/referee conference mentioned above, the coach doesn't have the ability to pick and choose which official answers his questions.