Written by: Lucas Mckeown.
Everyone loves to unleash their inner NFL star and get out on the field for some flag football. However, it becomes a difficult situation when a game-deciding play involved a potentially, questionable rule. There are a few major rule infractions that often go unnoticed, and it’s important to discuss them in depth so players know what’s legal, and what isn’t. Three major discussion points from questionable rules include hiding the football, blocking, and pick plays.
Hiding the Football
For those who haven’t encountered this before, hiding the football is actually more common than you might think. Whenever a player uses another player to hide the location of the ball, their shirt to cover it, or both arms to surround the ball, it’s considered hiding the football. This is a violation of the rules as it allows the ball carrier to prevent the opponent from seeing the football. Needless to say, this is very much against the rules.
Blocking
If you’ve ever played football and found yourself running into somebody bigger than you, then you understand the pain of a block. In Flag Football, blocking is illegal so you can imagine how much it can hurt when you don’t expect the block. For those who don’t know what blocking is, it’s when the team carrying the ball uses one of their players to run with the ball carrier and stop defenders from grabbing a flag. This often results in some potentially harmful collisions, contributing to the reason why blocking is a violation of flag football rules. In the event of a block, the ball is dead where the infraction occurred.
Pick Plays in Flag Football
Similarly to blocking, pick plays involve having players standing still as an obstruction to the defence so the offensive player has an easier path up the field. This causes a lot of injuries as flag football is a non-contact sport, so this strategy is a violation of the rules. Anytime a pick play occurs, the obstructed player must call it out and play resets. this prevents team from setting up pick plays as their efforts won’t count toward anything.
Register for our summer Flag Football League here: Perpetual Motion Football Registration
Find more information on Flag Football here: Flag Football Rules