SAN DIEGO COUNTY FOOTBALL OFFICIALS ASSOCIATION - THE WEEKLY BULL FOR FLAG FOOTBALL – September 21, 2026
Officiating This Girls Sport – First off, you must maintain professionalism, and apply the exact same rules, standard of play, and tone that you would in any other game without bias or condescension. Secondly, you must keep all interactions strictly professional and when accidental contact occurs, a simple “excuse me” or “sorry” can confirm that the act was accidental.
Watching Flag Football Film – I learned to watch tackle football film at twice the normal speed after watching Walt Anderson watch NCAA film at 3Xs the normal speed. Now that I’m learning to watch flag football film, I’m starting all over and having to slow the film down to 25% speed in order to see both the blocker, and the rusher. Katie can do it at 50% (show off!) We both then speed it back up to train our eyes to see the play properly at normal speed. Try adjusting the playback speed and see if you don’t see more, with more accuracy.
Shorts – Reminder, shorts shall not have pockets of any type, exposed drawstrings, belts and/or belt loops.
Play Cards – Play cards may not be worn on the belt. This is different than tackle football where they now, can be worn on the belt. Tackle yes…Flag no.
Size of the Flags - Flag size is a minimum of 1.5 X 14 inches. Check your flags to make sure yours are legal.
Contrasting Colors – We are currently piloting a tool that can calibrate contrasting colors. We can submit a picture of the flag and pant, or number and jersey, and the software calculates the exact color pigments. Then it calculates the percentages and the exact amount of contrast resulting in a legal or illegal contrast. This will take the subjectivity out of the process. More on this as the pilot develops.
Illegal Contact - I continue to encourage players, coaches and officials to eliminate contact from the sport of flag football. The only contact that I can think of that would be unpenalized is when two or more players are attempting to catch or block a pass. There is no remedy for that form of contact. But blocking, running and flag pulling need to be without contact. Trust me, it is far better to penalize the contact than trying to determine what level of contact is legal, and what level of contact is not legal. Just make them all illegal and the players will adjust.
Losing Track of the Line to Gain – One crew came up with the idea to use a down indicator on their other wrist to keep track of the line to gain. GL – 20 - 40 – 20 – GL. Write down the line to gain when you end a quarter as we had a crew lose track of the line to gain when they switched sides. Recording that information is our required mechanic. When you don’t do it, and you lose the correct line to gain, there is no excuse.
Clock Operator Instructions – Attached is a card that can be helpful to the volunteer clock operator. You might consider printing it out and leaving one near the clock for your operator.
