Picked Up Flag during Live Action April 25, 2019 World Games 2014 0 Forum Questions This actually happened in a varsity game : a veteran official, as the trail , threw his flag for an offsides on Team B and Team A continued to the attack zone and passed the ball around. He accurately realized that there was no offside. He calmly went over to the flag, picked it up and announced very loudly that there was no offside/no foul and to continue play. No one said anything, the coaches didn't complain and there was no interruption with the play of the game.! Was this handled correctly ? Question File Add new DuBan's Answer: Visual Text Chuck is a trustworthy person. If he did that based on his explanation, I would believe him. Kratz's Answer: Visual Text McCarrick's Answer: Visual Text Riti's Answer: Visual Text Tyma's Answer: Visual Text If you are going by the book, you have no choice but to let the slow whistle play out. The team in possession at the time of the inadvertent flag continues to play as if the flag never happened -- so far, so good. The problem, of course, is that you could get a foul by the defense that would then have to be time-serving if the first flag were not inadvertent. But since the first flag is a mistake by the officials, both the first flag and any subsequent flag for a <em>loose-ball</em> technical foul should be picked up. Because you kill the play on the second foul, and it turns out to have been a loose-ball technical, the ball goes to the team that was in possession at the time of the inadvertent flag -- still all good. Looks just like the case of deciding not to play on. And if there is a technical foul by the team in possession, you would kill the play anyway. The difference is that the the team in possession at the time of the flag is not entitled to possession after their technical foul because the flag was inadvertent. This will require a little salesmanship to the benches, but ultimately there is nothing inappropriate done in this case. A personal foul by the team in possession also kills the play and results in loss of possession, which is how things would have turned out if there had not been an inadvertent flag. A personal foul by the team defending at the time of the inadvertent flag results in an immediate whistle. This is only slightly different from what would have happened had there been no inadvertent flag. A defender will serve, and the team in possession retains possession -- that's all to the good. But the offenses's scoring opportunity gets cut off right away. (It looks and feels the same as an inadvertent whistle on a flag-down, this one being for the second flag.) Again, you have to throw yourself on the mercy of the bench for your mistake; but it didn't cost the offense very much. Answer File Question Answered Yes No
