Pet Peeve: Guys: Hand the ball to the ref!

A player makes a nice interception. I understand he is excited. He and his teammates are reminded repeatedly during practice to hand the ball to the referee. After the interception, while his teammates are congratulating him, he tosses the ball up in the air a good ten feet and it falls harmlessly to the ground. The referee standing near him throws the flag. Now his offense is fifteen yards further back.

Take the guesswork out of the equation. After a score or after a great play, simply hand the ball to he nearest official. No way you are it with a penalty.

I think this needs to be done more often in the NFL too!

Can't they just drop the ball where they stand? The ref isn't always nearby.

A 15-yard penalty for tossing the ball in the air out of exuberance is a bit much. It doesn't effect a play like, say, holding does. That's only 10 yards.

I get it. But we expect kids to play with emotion and excitement. Yet we penalize them when they show emotion. I understand we can't have all out celebrations after every play, and taunting and excessive stuff certainly shouldn't be acceptable. But we talk so much about how football (and all sports) are supposed to be fun, and then turn around and try to take fun out of the game.

I think they should put props behind the end zone so guys can get creative when they score.

Set the ball down to assist with the spot.....referee can adjust accordingly.

Or hand it to the ref.

While handing to the red is preferable, I don't think the above scenario is worthy of a penalty

Sat through a spring of watching a local college work on a tempo offense where the ball was supposed to sprint back to the official for ready to play and it happened far too infrequently for the coach. When someone didn't comply, the whole team would bear crawl down and back.

I think the officials can survive getting the ball off the ground.

Act like you've been there before ... players that do that are ME players ... Its not about YOU .... love a nice TEAM celebration if did in a classy way ...

Act like you've been there before ... players that do that are ME players ... Its not about YOU .... love a nice TEAM celebration if did in a classy way ...

Dusted off all of the old cliches there, huh?! :lol2:

Act like you've been there before ... players that do that are ME players ... Its not about YOU .... love a nice TEAM celebration if did in a classy way ...

Again, football is an emotional game. People express emotions, joy and excitement in many different ways. While football is certainly a team game, it's a team game made up of individual efforts. If one of my players does something great, I expect them to be excited and really don't have any issues as long as that expression doesn't involve taunting, or inappropriate language, actions or behavior. I hate seeing kids being forced to act like emotionless robots.

I constantly hear the phrase "act like you've been there before". For some high school kids, they may not have been there before. And for many, they may never be there again. Let 'em celebrate a little.

Kinda wish at the HS level there was a 5 yard penalty for this and a 15 yard penalty.

Perhaps I watch too many run-heavy teams, but I honestly don't recall seeing this called more than a handful of times in my 30+ years of watching high school football.