Quote: It's really quite simple. During the pre-game meeting with the captains, you TELL them that the 10-yard rule will be enforced with ONE warning, followed thereafter by cards for OBVIOUS non-compliance. Each team gets one warning ONLY. And you make sure the coaches get the message.
If you REALLY want that to eliminate the dawdling and encroachment, you make the penalty a yellow card to the head coach of the offending team.
Ahh the captains.
99% of the time captains do not care at all about what you say in your pre-game talk to them, they never go back to the team and tell them what you said. All they care about is who gets the ball and what side they have first. In my games, I call them together, shake hands, and just tell the away captain to call the toss. That's it. There is no obligation in the rules for the captain to tell their teammates what to do or what not to do, and often times the biggest pain on a team is one of the captains. Twenty years ago when I first did high school games, I had a fight break out between two captains at the coin toss.
Verbal warnings for obvious encroachment are unnecessary also. If I have to give a warning for that, I have to give a warning for every type of foul and misconduct before I penalize for it. Players who play the game are expected to know the rules. Just Donovan McNabb about overtime.
Also you can only give the coach a card for bench misconduct or misconduct you can not attribute to a player. An AR running down the line gets spit on by a player he does not see on the bench, the coach gets the red.
