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Good afternoon, I hope all is going well with your season; only 2 more games until the playoffs. This week I'd like to discuss: 1. Pass Interference 2. Roughing the kicker 3. Band Noise (revisited) Pass Interference-this is a "harsh" penalty, particularly against the offense: 15 yards, loss of down, against the defense: 15 yards, automatic first down. That being the case, we try to instill in our officials that the penalty "has got to be there" (no phantom calls). Unfortunately, since the call is mostly a subjective one, controversy exists often. Often there will be some contact and even some "hand play", but that doesn't mean a flag is warranted. Keep in mind our base philosophy: the flag is thrown for player safety, unsportsmanlike acts, and when a player has gained an advantage over another player. There is no "non-catchable" rule in high school like there is in the NCAA, however, if the contact did not prevent someone from catching a pass, the flag should not be thrown (if the pass is thrown in another direction, if the pass is 10 yards over a receivers head, if the contact happens as the pass is going beyond the receiver-no advantage gained, no foul) For the offense, the penalty restrictions begin at the snap, so often a flag will be thrown long after an offensive receiver initiates contact with a defensive back, because until a pass is thrown, there is no foul; the problem is when the flag comes out at the end of the pass, for something that occurred before the pass was thrown, (when no one except the official is looking at the receiver and defensive back), everyone thinks it's a terrible call, but it may in fact be a great call (let's hope). The offensive receiver can initiate contact legally with a defensive back only if the defender is within a yard of the line of scrimmage at the snap, and then contact can only continue for another 1 yard. If the receiver blocks the defender away from himself, and then runs a pass route in another direction, the receiver has gained a huge advantage and the flag should be thrown. The problem is that if the defender initiates contact (which is legal as long as the receiver is in front of him and is still a potential blocker, and the pass has yet to be thrown), the receiver has the right to be involved in contact. We'll typically look for two things: 1. Did the receiver use his hand(s) to aggressively push away from the defender to create "seperation", or 2. Did the receiver initiate contact by blocking the defender away from the direction he subsequently ran his pass route. In both cases, the penalty should be called. For the defense, the penalty restrictions begin when the pass is released (although if a defender blocks a receiver who is into his route away from the defender, or on the same yard line or beyond as the defender before the pass is thrown, or if the defender holds the receiver before the pass, the penalty for blocking/holding against an eligible receiver can be called---10 yards, not an automatic first down [different than NCAA rules]). Realize that once the pass is thrown, the offense has the same restrictions as the defense. Pass interference is called most commonly when: 1. Face-guarding-occurs when the defender or receiver turns his back to the ball and puts one or two arms up to block the opponents vision. As long as the player is facing the ball, no penalty has occurred. 2. The player is "beaten" by his opponent, does not play the ball, and makes contact with the opponent before the ball arrives. Again, if the player merely turns and looks toward the ball, a certain amount of contact will be allowed, as he has equal access to the ball. 3. The player "goes thru" the opponent before the ball arrives. When a player has established "position" over his opponent, the opponent can not "go thru" that opponent to get at the ball. 4. When a player puts his hands on his opponent and pushes away creating "seperation" to go get the ball. A point of emphasis is not to let the defensive back take a cheap shot at the receiver after an uncatchable ball has gone beyond the receiver. That foul would be a 15 yard, dead ball personal foul. Roughing the Kicker-When an errant snap occurs and the potential punter starts running, or when a punter purposely runs into the sidezone and the defense is unsure of his intention to kick or run, we will call running into/roughing the kicker much like we would call roughing the passer; a certain amount of contact may be allowed, but once the defender knows that a kick has been made, he must stop his charge. When a punter merely drops/muffs the snap and immediately picks it up and punts, he still has the same protection as if he never dropped the snap, and the defense can not touch him (unless the defense has partially blocked/tipped the kick-realize even in this case, contact can not be deliberate or a personal foul). Band Playing During Game (re-visited)-if the band is playing when the opposition breaks the offensive huddle and comes up to the line, we will ask/warn the sideline to tell the band not to play during this time (if it keeps happening, we would first call 5 yard delay of game, and then 15 yard unsportsmanlike---but it should never get to this point). At no other time will we be concerned if the band is playing. CIF has a rule about artificial noise-makers, and as officials if we are aware of any noise that is interfering with the game (like whistles, etc) we will deal with game administration to deal with that issue. If noise is not interfering with the game, we are not in a position to deal with school discipline/management issues or issues between schools. Some schools are using amplification systems for their bands/jazz bands; these systems are not against the CIF artificial noise maker rules, and are not against any federation football rules (unless the band is interrupting the opponents offense). Have a great week and good luck. Thanks, Mike Additional Resources |
