[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Back in ancient times we had something called “Change of Status”.

The "Change of Status" rule primarily dealt with the transition of the ball from live to dead (or vice versa).

When it came to a held ball (two players wrestling for control), the rule was used to determine if a team could save the possession with a timeout.

As soon as two opponents both have firm hands on the ball, a held ball occurs. This is a "Change of Status" where player control is lost. Under the old status rules, if the official judged that the status had changed due to a held ball (even if the whistle hadn't blown yet), the timeout request was denied because player control no longer existed.

“Change of Status” also denied requests for timeouts when 80% of a count had been reached; four seconds of a five second count (inbounding, closely guarded), and eight seconds of a ten second count.

Am I correct in my explanation Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.?

In ancient times, wasn't the term "tie ball"? "Held ball" referred to a 5 second count while closely guarded.