Question Number: 19074

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/13/2008

RE: Competitive Under 19

Ed Murphy of Lake Wales, FL US asks...

This question is a follow up to question 19058

Thanks for your responses. I changed the category to 18yo competitive as it was that and my high school team as well. This would make it a "real world" situation. Gene, if I cant tell how far 2 yds is, I really am not qualified to ask any questions at all and I'm just not sure why you would make that statement. It was 2 yds/6ft and it was done 8+ times in one half and I would guess probably hundreds of times before in other games based on the consistency of the distance.

In my opinion and apparently the group's, it was not in the spirit of the game and it was an attempt to gain an unfair advantage.

Allowing such a thing just opens up too many cans of worms with the possibility of injury to the player and spectators. When there is an incident "out there", you have to deal with the question of what rises to misconduct and was it a player/sub or an outside agent. By allowing it, you have to not only inspect the field pre-game to insure player safety but the area beyond the sideline and then guess how far out. If there's a chuck hole there and you let the wide runs go, is it your responsibility when the "wide guy" blows out his knee because you let it go? Do you really need the added responsibility and uncertainty?

I think you folks would nip it in the bud based on your answers but the AR on my side refused. We considered setting a pick with an "innocent" bystander but that's not in the spirit of the game...like the continual wide runs.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Ed, it's up to the Center Referee to nip this in the bud not the AR. But I agree with you that this does seem to be going beyond what is considered "during normal play" and should have been addressed