Enfield Flag Football - EFFL

23 Posts

First off I would like to say congrats Bearcats for a very well played game..That is probably the best I have seen them play..We were def outplayed...Not making any excuses
For people that did not see it on the first series of the game we tried to pull Jeff Russells flag and it wouldnt come out..The refs stopped the play and tried to pull his flag and it still wouldnt come out...Ive been playing this game for a long time and never seen such a busch league move as this..Some flags are difficult to pull but never seen a flag that wouldnt come out Obviously he said he didnt know that the flag was like that...If he didnt do it how did the belt get like that..Not sure if there is a rule against tampering with the flags but there def should be one..C'mon man

21 Posts

I will say only a few things on this...firstly we have tried numerous times to use our own flags which I have for our team and have been told we have to use the flags that are provided for by the league. I dont pull my flags out when I put them on either...I put on my belt and hit the field. Its not like he sat there and did whatever people do to "tamper" with the flags. He grabbed a belt...put it on...and warmed up. Its not that serious that we are going to "tamper" with flags to gain an advantage.

In our semi final game last year...Timmy Burdick had a similar situation on a 20 yard run where we missed his flag on 3 separate attempt. The ref Timmy went over over he scored a 20 yard rushing TD and did the same thing Gordie did...pulled hard on his flag with all his strength and it came out eventually. They rewarded Timmy with the TD and furthermore didnt make him take off the belt...We had the play revoked...which after last year the same thing happening in reverse to us...and being told the TD was still good I feel shouldnt have even happened. I dont think Timmy did it on purpose either but he just had a belt with flags that were stuck in there good. The same happened with Russell. But its happened with us in the past too.

Point blank we didnt tamper with the flags. He put on a belt (provided by the EFFl per the rules) and played a football game. Some flags come out when you take a step on their own, some of them are stuck in there good. We would gladly use our belts and flags which are in much better shape than the leagues...but have been told on a few occasions we cant do that.

23 Posts

Spence
I agree that some of our flags come out easy and some dont, but there is a big difference from a flag that is stuck in there good to a flag that wont come out...IM no engineer but if the flag wouldnt come out with normal force Im sure that it probably would go IN with normal force either..bottom line someone tampered with that belt..You have to defend your teammate but neither one of us knows for sure who did it...Good luck next week..

21 Posts

Right I see what your saying...but if he didnt pull the flag out when putting on the belt...then he also isnt the one who put/jammed the flag in either.

I understand both sides...(and have been on both sides)...so I get it...The play got revoked and honestly it was a long play so I think we paid the price for it even though as I said I dont think it was something he did on his own...Russ is an honest player. He isnt looking to gain any advantage out there especially with something like that. Thanks for the props though. Always a great battle Yellow vs. Reils/Starrs/Bearcats. Weve had our fun over the years. Look forward to more in the future.

23 Posts

You paid the price? It was 3rd and 15.. Pass was a 5-7 yards our corner came up pulled the flag..I saw him literally pulling on it...The play would of been over there.. 4th and 8-10yds to go..Instead you got the play over...Like I previously said I dont think this decided the game in anyway..We were outplayed.. Just have a hard time believing the most shifty (difficult to flag) guy on your team just happens to put on the only belt that the flags wont come out..Russel must just be very unlucky I guess..

We def had our battles..Not sure the future of yellow, we couldnt even get a full squad there for the playoffs..Playing with 10-12 guys is tough for us veterans..

21 Posts

I guess we can just agree to disagree. My feeling is that is wasnt done maliciously. The WRs on our team all have their own flags and belts that they want to use. I personally do also. We abide by the rules by using the leagues flag bin and not our own. When I play in other leagues, tourneys whatever else not EFFL affiliated we all use our own belts. We cant in Enfield for some reason. We grab the belts from the bin. Nobody is tampering with the league belts that we are forced to use to gain an advantage. Half our team shows up 5 minutes before the game haha. Barely enough time to even warm up properly, never mind search around for an advantage with the flags.

I hope Yellow sticks around. Had to suck not having Bobby in the playoffs. Even so you guys are still a tough matchup every year and although we have our battles on the field the respect is always there and we look forward to those Yellow vs. Black games for sure man.

97 Posts

Lakeview (Coventry) used their own flags this year. They had pop flags which is the only requirement. Either way, the idea behind league flags is to be sure 1. Everyone has flags to play on Sundays and they are all standardized and 2. To control against tampering.

Since we "lose" flags every single year (I say that sarcastically), it has been discussed in passing many times to require teams to supply their own flags. This is something that can be decided at a league meeting. Typically flags are $120 for a set of 25 which will add $$ for some teams onto league dues obviously. The flags would have to be standard pop variety. There are two issues with this scenario however....1. Flags should be different colors, this would be impossible for all games....2. Players probably would have to subject themselves to a "pull test" before every game in order to assure there has been no tampering.

The other potential issue is what to do when a team forgets their flag bucket for a game.....Technical Forfeit !? sounds terrible.

6 Posts

I honestly dont think that anyone especially knowing what kind of person Jeff is would do that on purpose. We all know we are looking for the sticky flags when we come onto the field. Especially us Qb's! Its in inexact science those flags and the bottom line is it seems cheap to say a team cheated when you lose.

We had a guy score a 60 yard touchdown against us this year WITH NO FLAGS ON AT ALL. The refs didnt see it pre snap and the TD ended up counting. We lost the game because of that score. I didnt run on here and start whining about it. We lost the refs made an error and thats just the way it is sometimes. Every team gets screwed on some plays each and every game. Its part of football on every level.

Its frustrating to see that Josh's team made the superbowl and we are focusing on wether his team purposely cheated? Ive known Josh the entire time i have played in this league and several guys on the team. They play year round because they love football. I have never ONCE seen any sign of them trying to gain and advantage in any way. It seems to me it was just an unfortunate situation. Because those flags could have ended up on any of their recievers and they have a bunch of good ones and it would always seem like it was that player trying to gain an advantage.

Its been a mess of a year for this league and we need to get things back on a good track because playing football on Sundays is great and fun for all of us to escape to a competetive enviroment for the day.

We need yellow back next year, not having that stout defense out there each and every season would be another blow to the history of the league.

Happy for spence and his boys and rooting them on to take back the crown. This should be a great game