Blog Post: March 10, 2025

The Dead Ball Foul – It’s Complicated (or Not)

Ruling on a dead ball foul can be complicated. Let’s try and simplify it.

In my first varsity contest this season, I had a quick and tough decision to make. I ruled a holding foul on defensive player B-1; after the foul, ball handler A-1 rotated his arms, and his elbow contacted B-2 above the shoulders. It was accidental, but solid contact was made.

What do you rule?

Once the holding ruling was made, the ball became dead. The elbow contact occurred during a dead ball. I “thought” a dead ball foul had to be a technical foul.

Looking back on this play with my partners, we went through the rules book, and we thought the proper ruling should have been an intentional foul, since the elbow contact did not rise to a “flagrant” level. Though this ruling may seem extreme given the nature of the play, it’s the decision we thought we should have made.

However, let’s look at this play from the NFHS Case Book:

4.19.5 Situation A: A1 is fouled by B1. A1 subsequently pushes B1. RULING: If a foul is ruled on A1, it must be either an intentional or flagrant technical. If it is ruled flagrant, A1 must be disqualified. If A1’s contact during a dead ball was neither intentional nor flagrant, it is incidental (4-19-1, NOTE, 10-4-7).

Absorb that last sentence. It appears I could have ruled the contact incidental, since the contact was neither intentional nor flagrant. The elbow contact was potentially dangerous, but did not meet the criteria for intentional or flagrant.

Rule 10, Section 4 – Player Technical, Article 7, states that it is a player technical for “intentionally or flagrantly contacting an opponent when the ball is dead and such contact is not a personal foul.”

Had this contact occurred during a live ball, this would have been a personal foul, but since the contact occurred after the ball became dead, the contact should be ignored.

I hope I’m never placed in this situation again. Explaining to the coach in this example was no easy chore.

Armed with this knowledge, we hope you’ll get it right when faced with similar dead-ball situations.

~ Dave Simon