After watching several college football games over the weekend, they all seem to run together.

I don’t remember in which of those games it occurred, but one of them had an offensive pass interference penalty where the announcers and the crowd loudly disagreed. Perhaps an explanation of the rule covering that particular violation is in order.

The NCAA College Football Rule Book covers pass interference in Rule 7, Section 3, Article 8, entitled &uot;Illegal Contact and Pass Interference.&uot; Article 8a states: &uot;During a down in which a legal forward pass crosses the neutral zone, illegal contact by a team A (offensive) and team B (defensive) players is prohibited from the time the ball is snapped until the ball is touched by any player or an official.&uot;

Rule 8b adds: &uot;Offensive pass interference by a team A player beyond the neutral zone during a legal forward pass play in which a forward pass crosses the neutral zone is contact that interferes with a team B eligible player. It is the responsibility of the team A player to avoid the opponent.&uot;

What usually happens is an offensive team receiver will go into his pass pattern and push off from the defender. As this doesn’t become a violation until a pass crosses the neutral zone, the official doesn’t throw his flag until that time.

This appears to the crowd and to the announcers to be a late flag and results in the call being criticized. From experience, I know offensive pass interference is one of the more difficult calls in football officiating because it’s generally difficult to place blame when a receiver and defender bump each other as the pass pattern develops.

Throw in the fact that on most running plays the identical contact occurs between receivers and defenders and the covering official often finds himself in no-man’s land.

To another subject. We are all aware Saturday was the anniversary of 9-11 and a hard reminder of the absolute necessity that our constant prayers and vigilance will always be required.

The past three Friday nights I covered as a reporter a high school football game. The first game involved a parochial school visiting a public high school, the second involved a pair of parochial schools and the third had two large public schools.

The common thread connecting the three games was that, after the post-game handshake (actually, the kids now all simply hand-slap) the players from both teams gathered together in the middle of the field and prayed.

This was not in either case orchestrated by coaches or other adults, and none of the six schools was connected in any way to each other. In one case the game had been very close and hard-fought.

The other games were wipeouts, and the losers could have felt they had been humiliated. This didn’t stop any of those kids from kneeling, arms around their opponent’s shoulders, and praying in their own way.

I don’t think you’ll find an ACLU lawyer brave or stupid enough to step on one of those fields and attempt to break up those prayers.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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