[Big E]

Does anyone actually have the official NFL rules? I looked on their website, and all they have is a "rules digest", and a disclaimer which says that any discrepancies between the digest and the official rules will always be decided in favor of the official rules, which are apparently over 100 pages long. I couldn't find it anywhere else.

Without the actual rules, I can't say one way or the other if they made the right call or not. But I'm not going to just take the word of the NFL that's what the rule book says. I think the ref screwed up, didn't stop play before the subsequent snap, and then tried to fix the mistake by making up the rule on the fly. Since there was a riot, the NFL sure as hell isn't going to come out now and say the ref made a mistake, they're going to cover for him.

I'd love to read exactly what the rule book says about replay and when it can be done.

[FirstFlaBn]

I watched the game and agree with you. They showed a replay of the official reaching to turn off his buzzer after the end of the spike play. The cover story was cooked up during the long delay. People make mistakes and officials are people, but this was simply CYA. I certainly reject any claims the officials didn't have time to blow the play dead. I've seen it done hundreds of times when a timeout is requested right at the moment the ball is snapped.

I take it the only reason for a buzzer is for this very instance - a review by the officials in the booth. If correct, then the three refs on the field were negligent in not immediately blowing their whistles in reponse to the buzzer. Technically, the buzzer stopped the play, so by not blowing their whistles, regardless of what point the play had progressed to, the field refs violated their own procedures.

The real problem is with NFL rules. The rules have been almost continuously changed to squeeeze in more commercials and make game times consistently fit in the three hour window. Whose stupid idea was it to have the ref gallop after the ball at the completion of a play to spot it for the next play. The only reason is to predict game durations. I've seen this potentially affect several outcomes. College rules are more sensible. Clock stops temporarily to spot the ball (and, as appropriate, move the chains), then the 25 second clock starts. Fair for everybody, no unrealistic pressure on the refs, no room for complaints about how the ref should have hustled. With the college rule, if this was indeed an equipment malfunction (highly unlikely), this probably would not have happened as the short interval between plays would have allowed time to sort it all out.