delay of game

so watching football, it took ten minutes of deliberations by the referees (and a couple of commercials) for the men in stripes to decide that they would call a delay of game penalty on the player who took one second to throw the ball into the stands after a great interception and run-back (and the home fans love it and cheered the player, naturally)... meanwhile, the ref was given another ball immediately after the play and he was holding the ball during the whole discussion...

so who actually delayed the game?