Weird Game Ending in Little Rock Today

[DONW]

As others have stated, how can the officials know for certain it was a Warren fan? It would be one thing if the game was being played at Warren and the home team was responsible for security, but it wasn't. It was at a neutral site.

PW is correct. The officiating crew simply made up a rule and penalty they thought was appropriate given the situation.

They could have called it a severe sideline infraction. They called that on Woody Hayes in 1981 when he jumped on the field and grabbed the Clemson player running for a TD. As far as it being a Warren fan, I think they saw that he was wearing Warren colors and assumed that it was the most logical conclusion to come to, and Warren was the one that benefitted by stopping the clock. Arkadelphia had the lead and wanted the clock to run out. The Warren coach made two bad decisions on the last two plays. His QB ran toward the sideline thinking he could either score or get out of bounds and stop the clock, but, the CB tackled him before he could get to the sideline. He should have lined the QB under center and spiked the ball to kill the clock to try the field goal. Another bad decision was not saving a time out. If the Warren coach wants to blame somebody for losing the game, he needs to look at himself first. As far as the ref making up a penalty, you can call an unsportsmanlike penalty on a lot of things that aren't in the rule book.

[PawDawg]

They could have called it a sideline infraction. They called that on Woody Hayes in 1981 when he jumped on the field and grabbed the Clemson player running for a TD.

Who would they call the infraction on? Was the person a coach for either team? A fan? The refs just assumed something.

[DONW]

Who would they call the infraction on? Was the person a coach for either team? A fan? The refs just assumed something.

The fan was wearing black and orange. I don't think they had time to interrogate him to find out who he was for. They made the most logical decision. What do you think the referee should have done?

[PawDawg]

The fan was wearing black and orange. I don't think they had time to interrogate him to find out who he was for. They made the most logical decision. What do you think the referee should have done?

Yeah, the colors were obvious, but somebody crazy enough to do that might have been "cross dressing" to hurt the opposition. That assumption is no worse than the one the refs ended up making. Refs can't make up rules based on their logic or how come crazy fan is dressed.

There should have been a stop in play to remove the crazy person, but no penalty.

[DONW]

Yeah, the colors were obvious, but somebody crazy enough to do that might have been "cross dressing" to hurt the opposition. That assumption is no worse than the one the refs ended up making. Refs can't make up rules based on their logic or how come crazy fan is dressed.

There should have been a stop in play to remove the crazy person, but no penalty.

So, you let Warren line up and kick the FG when they didn't have time to line up for a FG in the previous play? You just rewarded the idiot for running on the field. Now the idiots will think they can do that again. That guy wasn't smart enough to be a "cross dresser" and there was no advantage gained by an Arkadelphia fan running on the field. If the idiot had been an Arkadelphia fan, Arkadelphia would have been penalized which would have put the ball on the 3-4 yard line. Looks like he had on the wrong clothes. I thought the ref was very generous to Warren by putting 12 seconds on the clock. They got their chance to score.
I would be in favor of not calling a penalty if the play continues with 3 seconds on the clock without letting Warren line up to try a FG, but, warren lined up to kick the FG during the timeout to get the idiot off the field. A referee can call an unsportsmanlike penalty any time he wants to.

[DocMarvin362]

I have NO IDEA on Football rules, especially in Ar-Kansas, but in Baseball, they have a rule that is built in the rule-book for the crazy type scenarios that you can't predict....

9.01 (c): "Each umpire has authority to rule on any point not specifically covered in these rules."

[HogDawg]

So, you let Warren line up and kick the FG when they didn't have time to line up for a FG in the previous play? You just rewarded the idiot for running on the field. Now the idiots will think they can do that again. That guy wasn't smart enough to be a "cross dresser" and there was no advantage gained by an Arkadelphia fan running on the field. If the idiot had been an Arkadelphia fan, Arkadelphia would have been penalized which would have put the ball on the 3-4 yard line. Looks like he had on the wrong clothes. I thought the ref was very generous to Warren by putting 12 seconds on the clock. They got their chance to score.
I would be in favor of not calling a penalty if the play continues with 3 seconds on the clock without letting Warren line up to try a FG, but, warren lined up to kick the FG during the timeout to get the idiot off the field. A referee can call an unsportsmanlike penalty any time he wants to.

You are absolutely correct. I've thought of 1,000 ways to call this, but in the end, I think the referees got it just about right.

There is one extremely important lesson to learn from this: NOTHING beats a good tackle around the legs. If that Arkadelphia DB had tried to tackle that big Warren QB "LA Tech style"--up around the shoulders-- he'd been thrown into row 15, and the QB would have scored.

But as my dad always said, "son, you tie their legs together, and they ain't going nowhere."

[dawg80]

.

But as my dad always said, "son, you tie their legs together, and they ain't going nowhere."

Was he talking about girls from Bernice?

[dawg80]

Actually, come to think of it, Bernice girls were more likely to hog tie a guy to keep him from getting away!

[techman05]

How did the fan make it to the middle of the field? Shouldn’t security be right on top of the field that close to the final buzzer? Should have caught him before he got to the numbers.