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Good afternoon, In addition to all the Principals and Coaches of the Foothill-Citrus Area, all of the Instructional Chairmans of the CFOA, and all the Coaches on the CIF Coaches Advisory Committee, this e-mail will now also be sent to all the Football Officials of the Foothill-Citrus Unit to insure consistent practices, as well as to the CIF Office, so Rob Wigod is aware of all our practices/philosophies. This week I'd like to discuss equipment, holding, and field goals/extra points: 1. Equipment: This is probably our worst area in terms of consistent enforcement throughout the CFOA. My concerns are: A. Player safety as it relates to the wearing of all required pads. B. The integrity of the game, as rules are circumvented. C. Consistent enforcement so when teams get to the playoffs, you won't be penalized for practices that you've been allowed to exhibit throughout the regular season. At the beginning of the game, the head coach certifies that all his players are legally equipped. The penalty if a player is later found wearing illegal or missing equipment is a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty against the head coach (whenever the problem is found, so potentially at a critical point in the game). Our goal is not to penalize for this behavior, although repeat behavior, or something blatant like vasoline on a lineman's jersey will certainly elicit a flag. We need your help in being proactive with your players. For the rest of the season, our officials are going to concentrate on 3 areas of concern we've had in Foothill-Citrus: 1. Jerseys: The rule is that the jerseys must come to the waist and must be tucked in if longer. We don't have issues with "mid-drift" jerseys here, but we do have issues with "long" jerseys. Some of the players are purposely wearing their jerseys long so they won't be detected not wearing hip pads and tailbone protectors (which some feel slows them down-particularly "skill" players). Please have your players tuck in their jerseys if they go beyond the waist line. (And please make sure they have their hip pads and tailbone pads in) 2. Towels: Towels must be plain white with no writing or designs on them. 3. Streamers: These are long "belts" that go down below the belt line and have colors or stripes; these are uniform adornments and are illegal by rule. We will ask anyone with these streamers (long belts) to take them off, or tuck them into their pants. 2. Holding: If we enforced holding by the letter of the rule, we could literally call holding on every play of the game. What we have trained our officials to call are those holds that prevent a player from "making a play" (advantage/disadvantage). Holding that does not occur at the "point of attack" should not be called. What is common are runs into the sidezone where an offensive lineman "wrestles" with a defensive player. From our vantage point, we can't tell if the offensive player is holding or grabbing the jersey. Tell your defensive players to make some sort of spin move or lateral move toward the runner, that will expose whether or not they are being held, and if so, we should make the call. If they stand toe to toe with the offensive lineman and just wrestle with him and make no real move toward the ball carrier (I see it all the time), holding should not be called. Tell your defenders to communicate with the Umpire when they feel they're being held and he will focus on that player for a few plays. 3. Field Goal/Extra Point: I'm continually amazed that TV networks pay ex ball players and coaches good money to announce NCAA and NFL games when these individuals have no knowledge of what they're talking about with regard to the rules. I spend weekends screaming at the TV because the announcers continually tell you the officials are wrong, when almost without exception, the officials were correct, but the announcers talked you into the fact that the officials were wrong. Case in point: last week in one of the NCAA TV games, on a field goal attempt, the kicked ball clearly was over the upright as it crossed the plane of the cross bar. The officials signaled "no good" and immediately the announcer ran the replay and told us the officials missed the call, because he said a ball kicked over the upright is good. The announcer was wrong; to be good: the entire ball must be inside of the uprights (and over the crossbar). If any part of the ball goes over the upright, the field goal is no good. Have a great week and good luck on Friday (Thursday). Thanks, Mike Additional Resources |
