[ajmc]

Originally Posted by Middleman

The rules in 2017 did not say that a passer was a defenseless player. The rule, 2-32-16a, stated that an example of a defenseless player includes "A player in the act of or just after throwing a pass." I have not seen the exact wording of the rule change, but I am guessing that the "clarification" is intended to require that a pass must, indeed, be thrown and said pass must be a legal forward pass.

Actually NFHS 2-32-11, already defines, "A passer is a player who throws a legal forward pass. He continues to be a passer until the legal forward pass ends or until he moves to participate in the play."