Look for Reasons to NOT Throw the Flag

Officiating is not black-and-white. There are multiple shades of gray. There is a science to officiating (the rules book and mechanics manual) and there is an art to officiating (judgment). This website is called “Art of Officiating” for a reason.

You may have heard, “Fouls must scream” or “Call elephants and not ants.” Ray Lutz once told me the grandma sitting at the top of the bleachers should be able to see the foul. There is truth to those axioms. We love it when fouls “scream;” it makes our job so much easier when fouls are that obvious. However…

Our role is to ensure that one team does not gain an unfair advantage over the other team within the rules. Sometimes fouls that give one team an unfair advantage can be less obvious. In my experience, many fouls do not “scream,” so we need to exercise discernment when we view an action.

Holding is one of the most challenging fouls to adjudicate. Read the blocking definition in Rule 2-3. I propose that most of the blocks on a football field are not legal by rule. A blocker must keep his hands inside the frame of his body and his contact must be inside the frame of his opponent’s body. This perfect blocking technique is very rare. So we need to look in the “gray area” and determine if the hold was 1) demonstrated restriction, 2) at the point of attack, 3) that impacted the play. (“He’s holding!” is probably the complaint you’ll hear most often from the sideline.)

Formations (especially at the lower levels) will not be perfect. By rule, a lineman’s head or foot must break the waist of the snapper (2-32-9). No part of a back’s body may break the waist of the nearest lineman (2-32-3). In each game, we’ll see multiple examples of formations that are not precisely legal by rule.

By rule, no player other than the snapper shall encroach on the neutral zone following the ready-for-play (7-1-5). No player other than the kicker and the holder for a place kick may be beyond his free kick line following the ready-for-play.

By rule, no coach should attempt to influence a decision by a game official (9-8-1b) or indicate objections to a game official’s decision (9-8-1d).

If we’re looking for reasons to throw our flag, we’ll have plenty of opportunities. I propose we look for reasons NOT to throw our flag.

I’m not advocating we throw away the rule book and overlook rule infractions. We need to correctly officiate each contest and we can’t make up our own interpretations to suit our needs.

We must decide if a player or nonplayer gains an unfair advantage with his positioning, movement, words, or actions.

We can’t blow our whistle and throw our flag because B30’s helmet is barely in the neutral zone. We can’t blow our whistle and throw our flag because R45’s foot is on the midfield stripe during a free kick. We can’t flag a blocker every time his hands are outside his opponent’s torso. We shouldn’t flag a coach simply because he disagrees with our call.

We are not the penalty police.

For the less-experienced officials, it takes time to become comfortable with when to throw a flag and when to keep the flag in your pocket. (By the way, I threw three illegal formation flags in my first game in 2007, a 7th-grade contest.)