Football

Defining A Defenseless Player

The NCAA introduced the concept of a defenseless player in 2008, at the same time the first targeting rule was adopted. The NFHS followed...

You’ll Kick Yourself If You Don’t Spot These Fouls

If something funky happens in a football game, it usually occurs during a kick play. Such downs are a smaller percentage of all plays...

Coordination, Communication Key to Measurements

One of the oldest sports clichés is that football is “a game of inches.” When a measurement is involved, it might be a fraction...

Free But Not Easy

By George Demetriou Although every game begins with a kickoff, free kicks occur much less frequently than passing or running plays. Add the fact the...

Swap Meet

By George Demetriou One of the more common misconceptions in football is that a kick receiver must signal for a fair catch in order to...

It’s a Foul Now or Later (But Not Never)

You observe movement in either line just as the ball is snapped. You know it is a foul, but do you prevent the play...

What Happens When the Neutral Zone Expands?

The neutral zone is one of the basic tenets of a football game. In practical terms it’s the space between the offensive and defensive...

Week In The Life of An SEC Football Official

SEC FOOTBALL OFFICIATING WEEKLY PROCESS SATURDAY From the SEC Football Command Center, monitor games as well as internet and social media and note issues for...

Yawner? Blowout? Guess Again

By Jon Bible Iremember sitting at the breakfast table on the morning of a late-season game between two cellar-dwellers. One official, a garrulous person whose...

Onfield Meetings – Short, Simple & Complete

Much has been written and said about the importance of perception in officiating. Image is everything, as the saying goes and that is true not only of...

Formation Consternation Demands Concentration

Defensive players can align themselves anywhere for scrimmage plays as long as everyone is on the proper side of the neutral zone. There is...

Dead-Ball Officiating in the Side Zone

How does the runner usually react when he’s been tackled? The norm in college and pro football is that runners lay patiently after they...

Flying Flag

On Dec. 19, 1999, Jeff Triplette — in his first year as an NFL referee — was working a game in Cleveland when he...

Football Ground Rules

Whether it’s dry or wet, artificial or natural, the surface on which the game is played can have a marked influence on how the game is played and on...