I think that Mikey has it.  And it is tough luck as far as substitutions go.  The ref stands over the ball, and once he blows the whistle and starts the play clock the offense can snap the ball at any time.  To my knowledge the ref should not, and does not, wait for teams to substitute players.

Yeah, I think he does, too, and I totally get the offsides thing.  But the question pertains to the whole ref standing over the ball thing.  What determines how long he stands over the ball, in this case keeping the offense from snapping (assuming you aren't dealing with the whole 300 pound lineman running 60 yards situation)?  It seems like they let the offense snap pretty quickly in the last minute when they are tring to stop the clock by spiking, so why the variation in times?   I know you guys didn't see the play I'm referring to, and now I'm droning on so I'll stop.  I just feel like I'm generally pretty familiar with the rules and this one sort of stumped me.  Manning was trying to explout the substitution and he was prevented from doing so.  He was obviously pissed too, because he came out of the pile after failing the sneak and starting yelling at the umpire.  Nothing new there, I guess, though. 

now if you want real football entertainment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7oF4ZDigjM

 

Yeah, I think he does, too, and I totally get the offsides thing.  But the question pertains to the whole ref standing over the ball thing.  What determines how long he stands over the ball, in this case keeping the offense from snapping (assuming you aren't dealing with the whole 300 pound lineman running 60 yards situation)?  It seems like they let the offense snap pretty quickly in the last minute when they are tring to stop the clock by spiking, so why the variation in times?   I know you guys didn't see the play I'm referring to, and now I'm droning on so I'll stop.  I just feel like I'm generally pretty familiar with the rules and this one sort of stumped me.  Manning was trying to explout the substitution and he was prevented from doing so.  He was obviously pissed too, because he came out of the pile after failing the sneak and starting yelling at the umpire.  Nothing new there, I guess, though. 

I got the official answer for you.  I was flipping through the channels last night and came across the NFL replay on NFL Network of this game and it happened to be right at this point in the game.  They had the VP official Mike Perrira explain what the deal was.  He said that it has nothing to do with players getting onside\offside the reason the umpire stood over the ball was to wait for the line judges to get back off the field.  They even showed the clip.  As soon as the line judges were off the field the umpire backed off the ball they were free to snap it.  So the line judges had to come in to spot the ball and then get off the field before it can be snapped.  I've never really paid attention to this but what happens in a 2 min drill at the end of a game it seems like it happens a lot faster than this.

Anyways it has nothing to do with allowing player time to set-up etc...

I guess Favre really did get beat up.

holy crap, makes you wonder how effective he could be if they made the Superbowl.

Geaux Saints!

 

I'm drunk just thinking about what a Super Bowl appearance would do to that town.

Huh.

Thought about you all when Kia pimped the sock monkeys

What about the Colts 3rd down run play with about a minute to play?? Dumb.

Better team won. Peyton sure out coached Caldwell. That onside kick was as ballsy as you can get. Gotta give the Saints a hat tip. Well done.

 

The Saints that showed at the Super Bowl were not the same team that played two weeks ago.  They earned it, the Colts played one quarter of good football and the Saints 3.

Yeah, onside kick was ballsy.  At first I thought it was a little dirty that early but hey, it's legal just risky.