Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
I am asking is there an interpretation that specifies what could be illegal here. Not all rules are written the same or have the same issues. This was a snap that did not go to the QB or running back that was behind the center. So I am wondering (and I believe there is some provision) the snap has to go to certain people and if not it is a penalty.
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The rule explicitly (needlessly IMO) covers the case where the ball strikes the ground, with or without being muffed by a receiver. And I already wrote upthread that NFL
used to have a rule that made it a false start, not a snap infraction, if a back extended hands toward the snapper and did not eventually receive the snap, and that this clip was from after they famously removed that provision.
You want to look up the most recent official NFL playing rules, they're online via
https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/2021-nfl-rulebook You understood that that's where I was quoting from, right?
Meanwhile I Googled for other discussion.
This one doesn't seem to help, just says what I did.
However,
this one from 2020 at Refstripes.com is about the very play I linked to. The question about when the ball hit the snapper's butt is irrelevant. You can't snap the ball to
another lineman, but you're allowed to touch your
own body with the ball while snapping it. It's very common for a snap to touch the snapper's butt, especially if the QB is using the vertical dihedral (wrists together, palms up and down) form to receive the ball and the snapper is rotating its long axis to parallel to the line of scrimmage.