Smoot Lays the Smack Down (Redskins vs. Saints)

[over the mountain]

^^^ yeah the point florio is making has always struck almost everyone as odd. we benefited from this "keep playing after the whistle" rule a few times this year, got brunt by it yesterday.

it just makes no sense to have this rule in which players are supposed to ignore the whistle. so many times a season we see this potential fumble whistled down by contact, 23 players are standing around looking confused and 1 player picks the ball up and runs it all the way to the endzone with no one chasing him.

why have such an important play like a turnover be determined after a whistle blows a play dead? if im a coach, i would tell my players to disregard every whistle when it comes to down by contact plays when it comes to any loose ball that slips out.

take the ARE catch where he was tackled hard, ball came loose then ARE was lying on the ground in pain. the play was close so why couldnt a D player come flying in and blast ARE while hes on the ground and recover the ball? the ref whistled the ball dead and was pointing that ARE was down by contact, but arent players supposed to ignore this whistle? i mean, the ball came loose very quickly?

this rule makes no sense in how rules are defined. this is really a rule against the rules.