Official Unofficial Official: Week 12. Inadvertent Whistle. Iron Bowl!

Hot Officiating Action Alert! Monday Night’s NFL game featured the Patriots, the Bills, and some blown calls by the Officials! Fire all the Officials! They made mistakes!

Note: I officiated high school football and thoughts here are informed by those experiences.

Inadvertent Whistle

An official (line judge — LJ #108) blew the whistle during a live ball, which is called an inadvertent whistle. Mistake #1.

The crew determined the inadvertent whistle was blown after the receiver gained possession. Mistake #2.

Of course you ALWAYS want to avoid Mistake #1. It’s the most obvious and egregious shattering of the world of play there is, a needle popping a balloon. This is why, on the advice of seasoned officials, I trained myself to spit my whistle out of my mouth after the ball was snapped. (Pre-snap, you have your whistle in your mouth so it’s ready to blow and kill the play immediately if there’s a pre-snap infraction, like false start.) If you run around with a whistle in your mouth, you’re more likely to blow it. If you have to take the extra step of putting the whistle in your mouth, it gives you time to process the end of the play — and whether the ball is still live or is dead.

In fact, I switched to a “Finger Whistle” as an official. This is a whistle that loops over your fingers and doesn’t dangle from your neck. It was awkward to kill a play because of how deliberate I had to be in getting it to my mouth to kill a play, and that was the point.

Mistake #2 — deciding? remembering? that the ball was in the receiver's possession and not in the QB’s possession when the inadvertent whistle blew — matters because of ball placement.

If the inadvertent whistle happens when the QB has the ball, the down is replayed from the previous spot.

If it happens when the ball is in flight during a forward pass, the down is replayed from the previous spot.

If the inadvertent whistle happens when the receiver has possession, the catch counts but the play is dead at the spot where the receiver has the ball when the whistle sounded.

The crew said the receiver had possession and awarded the Pats the catch.

The play was not reviewed from the booth (and my understanding is that it couldn’t be?), so the officials had to huddle and remember back to when the whistle was blown. We would hope that they earnestly remembered the whistle coming after the receiver’s possession as opposed to deciding it was after the catch; one illustrating an understandable and unavoidable fault in human beings’ abilities to recall past information accurately; the other evidencing something more dubious, like injustice or cowardice.

We have the luxury of reviewing the tape:

You can actually see the moment the official tweets his whistle. It’s when the frames freeze above, when he brings his (foreshadowed) finger whistle to his mouth. The ball is still in the air. Dead ball when a ball is in flight during a forward pass = replay down from previous spot. They got the call wrong. And on national TV. Ouch.

I’ve had an inadvertent whistle during a game. It’s a terrible thing to do to yourself. You instantly feel like the loneliest person on Earth compounded by everyone knowing exactly who you are and what you did compounded by them unanimously deciding on your worth (not much) compounded by them loudly expressing their evaluation of your call, you, your face, and your crew.

The rule on our crew: If you blew an inadvertent whistle, you had to buy at least one pitcher after the game. Maybe more depending on the game situation when you blew it. That hurt the wallet a bit ($60 for a varsity game doesn’t get you too far on a crew of 5 dudes drinking Spotted Cow — yes, a craft beer, Barry, and a Cream Ale to boot!) but not too much because we all knew the acute pain was having made the mistake.

(Guaranteed that line judge won’t stop feeling just awful about that call for a while. If you personally know an official, hug her/him today as a token of empathy for this LJ. Better yet, buy her/his crew a pitcher!)

Now, not inconsequential, is the foul called on Rex Ryan during the play right here:

The foul was sideline interference, meaning Ryan was in the area between the sideline and coaching line during a live ball. That big band of white paint is a restricted area in which, by rule, only officials are allowed during a live ball. (The restriction to this space is pissed all over by coaches, players, and personnel all the time at all levels of football. It drove me nuts as an official because it is a safety concern…and it can be a distraction.)

I can tell you that an inadvertent whistle is the result of a lack of focus. Maybe you were replaying action in your head from the previous play. Maybe you didn’t have good “eye discipline” and were watching something you weren’t supposed to. Maybe you have a coach pissing all over the restricted area, starting to charge in your direction, screaming about godknowswhat, getting in your way. Again, it’s not excusable. But it’s understandable.