Are pick plays legal in flag football?
No, a deliberate pick is illegal in essentially every flag football rulebook, because it is a block and there is no blocking in flag football. But a rub, where two receivers run legitimate crossing routes and their defenders collide trying to follow them, is legal almost everywhere. The distinction officials call is whether the receiver ran his route or altered it to obstruct a defender. Mesh, bunch releases and crossing concepts are all legal for exactly this reason: nobody stops, nobody widens, nobody makes contact on purpose.
This is the pick, and it is legal. Both receivers are still at full speed here and neither has moved toward a defender. The two defenders trailing them arrive at the same square yard and have to choose over or under, and that hesitation is the whole concept. Nothing about it is a foul.
2 yards of daylight between them. Four and six, never four and four. At the same depth the two receivers run into each other instead of past each other, and an official who sees two players collide reaches for a flag before he works out whose fault it was.
Why the distinction exists
There is no blocking in flag football, at all
Not on offense, not on defense, not on a screen. A pick is a block executed by a receiver, so it fails the most fundamental rule in the sport. This is why the answer is no rather than sometimes.
But a receiver is entitled to his route
A receiver running a legitimate route who happens to occupy space a defender wanted has not committed a foul. The defender's problem is his own. Every crossing concept in football depends on this being true.
The line is intent, and officials read it through movement
An official cannot see intent, so he judges it by what the receiver's body did. Running through at speed reads as a route. Slowing, widening, turning into the defender or extending an arm reads as a block, and gets called.
The same two routes, legal and illegal
Identical formation, identical depths, identical defenders. One receiver does one thing differently, and that one thing is the entire rule.
- A rubLegalThe legal version: both crossing receivers run through the mesh point at speed and their routes continue past it.
Both arrows leave the crossing point. Nobody stopped, nobody rounded off, nobody widened. A route that continues past the traffic is a route.
- A pickIllegalThe illegal version: the deeper receiver stops at the crossing point and turns into the trailing defender, so his route ends there instead of continuing.
The deeper route ends in a bar instead of an arrow, because it stopped being a route. That is the only difference between these two pictures.
He stopped, and squared up. An official cannot see intent, so he reads the feet. Stopped feet next to a defender are the only evidence he needs, and he does not have to decide what the receiver meant by it.
How to tell, from the sideline, in real time
- 1
Feet: running feet are a route, stopped feet are a block
This is the one that gets called, and it is the only one an official can see from where he is standing. A receiver who slows near a defender has made the decision for him. Everything else on this list is a way of making sure the feet keep moving.
- 2
Depth: two yards apart, never the same
Cross at four and six. At the same depth the two receivers collide with each other, which is both bad football and the thing that most often looks deliberate from the sideline. Two yards is enough to pass cleanly and tight enough to make the defenders choose.
- 3
Eyes: on the quarterback, not on the defender
A receiver looking at the ball is running a route. A receiver looking at the man he is about to pass is doing something else, and the official watching the crossing point will notice which. Coach where the eyes go and the rest tends to follow.
- 4
Hands: down, always, with no exceptions
An extended arm is a flag every time and there is no argument available to you afterwards. Say it as an absolute rather than as a guideline, because a child who has been told "try not to" will use his hands the first time somebody is in his way.
How officials actually call it
Youth officials call the collision, not the rule
In practice a youth referee flags what looks wrong rather than what technically is. Two receivers colliding near a defender often draws a call even when the routes were clean. Cross at different depths and the situation never arises.
Some leagues ban crossing routes outright
A minority of youth rulebooks prohibit any route designed to cross another, precisely to avoid this judgement call. It is rare, but it is worth reading your rulebook before installing mesh as a base concept.
Bunch draws more scrutiny than spread
Receivers starting close together make any traffic look designed. The routes are no less legal, but expect the crossing point to be watched more carefully out of a bunch than out of a spread set.
When it will get flagged
When a receiver has been told to make contact
That is a block and it will be called, correctly. Ten yards and a replayed down at best, and in some leagues an ejection for a repeat.
When your receivers are too young to run through traffic
Five and six year olds slow down when another child is in front of them, which converts a legal rub into something that looks like a pick every time. Use spacing concepts at that age instead.
Against a league that bans crossers
Read the rulebook first. If crossing routes are prohibited, the whole family of concepts is off the table and no amount of clean technique changes that.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the free flag football play designer, collect them in the football playbook maker, and print play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw a legal crossing concept
Open the play designer, set your crossers at different depths, and print it so your team runs it the same way every time. Free.
Open the play designerRelated questions
Are pick plays legal in flag football?
What is the difference between a pick and a rub?
Is the mesh concept legal in flag football?
What is the penalty for an illegal pick?
Related guides
Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.