Quote:
Originally Posted by bisonlj
several years ago someone in the NFL came up with the idea of starting a play clock at the end of the play.
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They tested it first in the WLAF with a 35 second clock. That was one of the reasons for the WLAF: to be a test bed for rules. 35 seconds was found to be unbearably fast, so when the NFL finally did adopt it, they made it 45, which turned out to be unbearably slow.
Whatever, it seems the rules makers have decided that out of this:
DEAD BALL......................................RFP..... ...............................TIME UP
they're more concerned that the total interval be fixed, rather than the interval from RFP to "delay of game".
But then, sometimes they make goofy decisions in that regard. At one time they limited only time in the huddle. Then when they realized time could be wasted "on the line" (officials' judgment as to when that became delay of game), they started limiting
both time in the huddle and total time, before someone asked why anyone should care how much of the total time to play the ball the team spent in the huddle.