An inadvertent whistle kills the play... end of story... and in all honesty, someone will get screwed. Officials are taught NOT to blow the whistle until they KNOW the play is dead, but it happens. Referees are people.<div>
</div><div>First off, someone on the crew had to have heard it... and speaking from some experience, he was probably harassed some for blowing it, but that's neither here nor there. He should have nutted up and said he blew the whistle... which would have meant an inadvertent whistle. That would mean the team in possession would have had 2 options:</div><div>
</div><div>1. Replay the down from the previous spot</div><div>2. Accept the results of the play from where the whistle was blown (the spot where the ball became dead). </div><div>
</div><div>Inadvertent whistle is the ONLY time an officials whistle kills the ball.</div><div>
</div><div>I'm not sure how replay would effect it, but I know in the NFL, things like forward progress cannot be reviewed (when the pile begins moving forward, then is pushed back and an official blows his whistle), so I would imagine this shouldn't have been reviewed if a whistle was involved. Even if it was a fan that blew the whistle, an inadvertent whistle should have been called in fairness to the rules and to the teams playing. </div>
