Rules of the Game - Falling, Diving, and Early Flagging

Wednesday, July 6th Jon Evans

This is our second entry in the MFL ‘Rules of the Game’ articles, where we let you players know about the intricacies of the game that you’re playing!

This time we’re talking about two different topics: leaving your feet and getting flagged early.

Leaving the Earth

First, let’s talk about what happens when you as a ball carrier leave your feet. It’s important to note that these rules only applies to ball carriers, and not players diving for flags or to make a catch.

If you are running with the ball in your possession our rules allow for what could be described as ‘hops’. Essentially, you are allowed to leave your feet when running, but you cannot make a leaping motion and most importantly you cannot significantly raise your knee! So, you’re allowed to spin or hop to the side (or forward!), but you cannot lunge, leap, or in any way aggressively hurl yourself forwards!

As a separate case, if you are falling, or in the opinion of the referee you are beginning to fall, then you are down immediately at the place where you began to fall. This is a rule a lot of players don’t seem to know!

The reason for this rule is simply safety. A player falling to the ground can put themselves in a lot of danger if another player is leaning in to grab their flag. Many players have taken a knee to the head when this rule was not in place! As a defender, if someone is falling you should back off and play safe and leave it to the referee to call them down. This is the why we add the part about ‘beginning to fall’ as it would be unfair for a defender who is backing off to be penalized by a runner regaining their feet just to run past them.

Don’t Flag Me Bro

Another rule that seems to cause a lot of confusion is what happens when a defender takes your flag before you catch the ball.

There are two possible answers to this: first, the referee believes that you were de-flagged very close to when you were catching the ball (similar to defenders being allowed to hit receivers a little before they catch the ball in tackle football), in which case you are considered down once the catch is made; or second, that the referee believes you were de-flagged well before you caught the ball, in which case the defenders must then attempt to de-flag you again even though you have fewer flags now!

In this same vein, if you are bobbling a ball and get de-flagged before you complete the catch, then you are down where you were de-flagged and not where you finally caught the ball. You don’t get a bonus for bobbling the ball! In tackle football you likely wouldn’t be making that catch at all if someone hit you as you bobbled the ball!

So, that covers leaving your feet and early flagging. Hope this helps make all of our players a more rules conscious bunch!

New Google Group For Subs

Friday, June 24th

We're now using a Google Group to post sub requests, so please join the group if you're interested in subbing at any point.

Here's the link : https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/montrealflagfootball

Eventually we will have a system through the website where you will be able to log in and indicate whether you will be attending a game or not and captains will be able to get subs with the click of a button, but for now it's a Google Group!

Rules of the Game: Timing

Wednesday, June 1st Jon Evans

Welcome to our new series of articles outlining some of the finer points of the rules in the MFL!

These articles are to help our players understand some of the more important or more obscure rules that they may not know, without having to search through our rulebook, which for those who don’t know, is linked on our website under the ‘League Info’ header menu.

This first write up is about the timing of games in the MFL as it is often a topic that players seem to be uncertain of.

The Game Clock

MFL games are played in two halves of 22 minutes of partial stop time each.

That seems pretty straight forward, but a lot of people aren’t sure of what is meant by ‘partial stop time’. Well, the game clock starts and stops as follows.

- The game clock is stopped at the start of the game until the first snap of the ball, unless the referee has deemed that the scheduled game start time has passed and will indicate to the time keeper to start the game clock.

- The game clock is stopped on all scoring plays and remains stopped through the convert (if applicable) and only starts again on the first snap of the ball after the change of possession.

- The game clock stops on all change of possessions until the first snap after the turnover. So, if you get that late interception for that one last chance to drive down and win the game, you don’t need to call a timeout!

- The game clock is stopped on all ACCEPTED penalties, though on offensive penalties the defense has the option to decline the clock stoppage. This must be declared by the defense and the default option is to stop the clock!

- The game clock stops on all timeouts called and remains stopped until the next time the ball is in play. Timeouts last 15 seconds, and the referee will blow the play in once they have deemed both teams are ready.

- The game clock always starts running on a snap of the ball, except for during convert attempts.
Okay, so that covers all the starting and stopping of the game clock. Simple enough, right?

The Play Clock

There are of course two clocks in football, so now we’ll cover the play clock.

The play clock determines how much time an offensive team has to put the ball into play before being called for delay of game. Here’s everything you need to know about the play clock:

- The play clock is generally started at 45 seconds.

- The play clock begins counting down for a play as soon as the previous play is over. This is why teams often find themselves running low on time after longer plays since they are losing time while they get to the distant huddle.

Teams face this issue at all levels of football, but it’s part of the game! In fact, this timing is exactly what is done in the NFL.

- The play clock starts at 25 seconds on all plays where it is not started until the ready for play whistle is blown. This includes:

- On a convert attempt

- The first play after a convert attempt is completed

- The first play after a turnover

The only exception to this is at the start of a half where the play clock begins at 45 seconds when the ready for play whistle is blown.

The clock is shorter on these plays because it only starts once the bags have been placed and the referee has blown the play in. The length of time it takes the referees to place the bags and for teams to get ready on these plays is often much longer than a normal play, so 45 seconds might be too short, but it would be too long if we gave 45 seconds once the play was in fact ready.

The End of a Half

The last timing rule that seems to confuse some players is how the “Last Play” system works.

In the MFL once the game clock reaches zero time remaining, the next play blown in by the referee will be announced as the last play. “Last Play” will always be announced before the play is blown in, so both teams should always be aware that it is the last play of the half.

Here’s a couple of examples:

- The game clock is at 5 seconds and counting down, at 3 seconds left the referee blows the play in. During the play the clock reaches 0 seconds. Before the next play is blown in, the referee will announce that the play is the last play.

- The game clock is at 10 seconds and counting. The referees are in the process of placing the bags and leaving the field. They do so with 1 second on the clock and before the referee can signal ready for play the time expires, so before whistling the play in the referee announces that it is the last play.

I wanted to add one last point about the play clock. Teams often ask for “practice snaps” when a new center is brought in and this is generally granted by the referee; however, the play clock continues to run during this time, so the offense should do these practice snaps quickly!

I hope that makes everything about timing in the MFL completely clear to all our players!

MFL Spring 2016 Playoff Format

Thursday, May 26th

The regular season starts this Saturday and everyone's got 12 games to qualify for a playoff spot!

Here's the playoff structure:
- The top team in each division automatically qualify for the playoffs and are seeded 1 and 2 in their conference.
- The top 2 remaining teams in the conference are seeded 3 and 4.
- First round of the playoffs seeds 1 and 4 in each conference play each other and 2 and 3 play.
- Winners of those games meet in the conference finals.
- Conference champions meet in the final for the championship.

Spring Season Starts May 21st!

Thursday, May 19th Jon Evans

The MFL spring season is just a couple of days away and with 16 teams the competition will be fiercer than ever!

We've got a brand new website (which we'll continue to improve!), several new high quality referees coming in (with previous flag and tackle football experience), and of course a slew of new players, so everything is bigger and better this year!

I hope everyone has a lot of fun this season and everyone stays safe out there. We're a friendly league first and foremost, so remember to play competitively but with caution.

Most important of all (even more important than fun!) is NO POCKETS! The pants of shame await you otherwise...

	Teams	GP	W	L	D	PTS
1	OUT	0	0	0	0	0
2	IW	0	0	0	0	0
3	BSH	0	0	0	0	0
4	ATM	0	0	0	0	0
5	CHF	0	0	0	0	0