Well aren't you quite the boy scout.
Plenty were not boy scouts, happily. I actually had no ideea there were such rules about the flag; noone ever went over anything like that with me when I was growing up in the Buffalo area. I likely would have looked for someone to hand the flag too, but not because I positively know better than to put it on the ground.
I would like to see the clip but I stand by my thought that the Redskins are equally culpable for the whole incident. If you are going to stage something, see it through to the final act.
Redskins PR person:
"OK Mike, heres what you do, run out with the flag and wave it a little. When you get to midfield, hand it the the ref who will be expecting it". How about that for a plan?
Sounds to me like they sent him out there with the flag then he was getting ready for a football game and noone told him s**t.