ADVERTISEMENT

Question?

DinwiddieProud

VaPreps All State
Gold Member
Dec 9, 2013
8,527
6,775
113
For you officials. How do you handle it when a team is slow coming out on the field for the kickoffs, of change of possession, or after a time out? I recently saw a team that habitually did all of the above. I'm sure the coach was playing some type of gamesmanship. The officials were obviously annoyed, but never seemed to discuss it with the coach. And no flag or penalty was assessed. Is there a hard rule? Is it mostly a judgement call?
 
It's easy if that team is offense or kicking team: I blow the ready for play at the appropriate time and they have 25 seconds befire it's a delay of game. That usually gets things moving.

If they're the receiving team or defense, it's a little trickier because I'm not going to allow a team to kick or snap the ball with no defense on the field. That's asking for trouble. I would do all I could to hurry them, and if it was obvious that there was gamesmanship or some nonsense like thay, I'd have a delay o game flag then and there. Never seen that happen.

I once had a coach for a team on offense call a time out, then when the defense went to their sideline he ran his team back on the field in formation and yelled at me to blow the whistle. When I didn't, he was furious. That's not how time-outs work. Not how sportsmanship works, either.
 
For you officials. How do you handle it when a team is slow coming out on the field for the kickoffs, of change of possession, or after a time out? I recently saw a team that habitually did all of the above. I'm sure the coach was playing some type of gamesmanship. The officials were obviously annoyed, but never seemed to discuss it with the coach. And no flag or penalty was assessed. Is there a hard rule? Is it mostly a judgement call?

To add to white hat's point, often the best way to correct a habitual problem like this is to discuss it with the coach. If it's clearly discussed that the coach needs to hurry up and not stall the game or else they will be flagged for a delay, the coach will more often than not correct the problem. If they don't, they've already received a warning, so a delay flag is that much easier to explain. This is a great example of preventative officiating giving your penalties a more solid foundation once a person has already been warned.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DinwiddieProud
A team in our association recently returned to the field for the start of the 3rd qtr. 7 minutes after the 3 minute warm up period ended.

Head coach charged with a USC foul, 15 yards on the kick off.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DinwiddieProud
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT