Football possession rule question.

• Glory Days

  

  hopefully some people who know more than me such as people who ref and make the call can shed some light on the subject.
  
  during the onside kick during the superbowl last night, how in the heck do they determine who has the ball at the bottom of the pile? from watching the replay it looks like the colts player had 2 hands on the ball while the saints player had a hand on top of the ball before the rest of both teams piled on and you lose sight of the ball. so at that point, whoever has the ball should be ruled down by contact right? i guess what bothers me is when the refs take forever to make the call. by then its too late, they should have made the call immediately in my opinion(or goto replay). or is it just understood that all of the nasty stuff that goes on in those piles is just part of the game?
  
  now this question isnt specific to last night because it happens all the time.
• Strapping Young Lad

  

  They should use replay to determine if someone had possession of the ball prior to the mass pile of bodies, like what you are talking about in last night's game....
  
  then if it's not definative by replay it's whoever came away with it when the pile was cleared.
• Skyhook79

  

  Its nearly impossible to determine who had possesion of the ball in a play like that.
  What they should do is to use replay to determine who piled on after the whistle blew and then penalize the team whose players do that after they unravel the pile. There were about 5 guys who jumped on the pile after the whistle blew that prolonged the process.
• Glory Days

  

  Skyhook79 wrote: Its nearly impossible to determine who had possesion of the ball in a play like that.
  What they should do is to use replay to determine who piled on after the whistle blew and then penalize the team whose players do that after they unravel the pile. There were about 5 guys who jumped on the pile after the whistle blew that prolonged the process.

  i remember at one point a colt's player was on his back literally kicking a saints player.
• se-alum

  

  IMO, the Colts shoud've gotten possession of the ball.
• 77Legend

  

  May the best man win!! Geeze, quit being so soft!
• Glory Days

  

  se-alum wrote: IMO, the Colts shoud've gotten possession of the ball.

  from watching the replay thats what i thought too.
• Sonofanump

  Glory Days wrote:how in the heck do they determine who has the ball at the bottom of the pile?

  Remove players from the pile one by one and see who the strongest player at the bottom is.