Minor League Football - 1st Round Payoff Game

The final score of 73-13 fails to reflect the lack of competitive play during the contest. This game was over ten minutes into the first quarter and the victors could have easily scored 100 points. In fact, at one time during the game, the coach asked me what would happen on the score reached 100, because they planned on running the score up.

From an officiating point of view this was a boring game. There were a lot of interceptions with run backs for scores. The winning team never seemed to have the ball. They score 73 points and maybe ran 30 offensive plays plays the entire game.

I worked the sidelines again. Threw a few offsides, false starts, and illegal formation as usual. The only big penalty was a Defensive PI. Before the first quarter ended the score was already 35-0. Players behind were saying, "hey, that guy is offsides". I said, "ya, I know." Then their team makes a eight yard run and they say "I guess it didn't help them". I say, "you noticed" and they chuckle. I did too but not so they could see me.

We had two interesting plays. The first occurred when the losing team had 4th and short around mid-field. There was a bad snap and then the ubiquitous mass of humanity. If you are not familiar with college rules, there is an important exception on 4th down fumbles. Only the fumbler is allow to pick-up the ball and advance. If another teammate gains possession the play ends and the ball will be placed back at the spot of the fumble.

So, on this play the question is - who is the fumbler on a bad snap? The Snapper or the QB? Typically on these plays the QB picks-up the ball and advances. But I think this is wrong.

Here's my interpretation of this scenario from the 2007 rule book.

2-12-1... Handing the ball is transferring player possession from one teammate to another without throwing, fumbling or kicking
2-12-1-c... loss of player possession by unsuccessful execution of attempted handling is a fumble by the last player in possession.
2-19-2-d...the snap becomes a backward pass when the snapper releases the ball
2-23-1-c ... the screwed-up snap is a backwards pass
2-10-1... a fumble is ANY act other than passing, kicking, or successful handling that results in loss of player possession..

So, I conclude the Snapper was the last player in possession of the ball, and thus on 4th down, the only player who can advance the backwards pass.

Luckily, they didn't make the line to gain anyway, so it was a non-issue, but we did talk about it and I think the White Hat would have given them the first down had they made it.

The second odd play was on a high snap that went over the kickers head. The kicker chased the ball and then kicked it while it was on the ground. An illegal kick. I had to give the White Hat the proper signal. Which really didn't matter because the other team ran the ball back for a score.

This could be my last MLF game this season. The next round of playoffs is next week, but of course, I won't know if I have a game until Wednesday.