Quote:
Originally posted by Dale Smith
Ed, the examples you give are violations of rule 7-1-5. Rule 7-1-6 states Following the ready for play and after the snapper has placed his hand(s) on the ball, encroachment occurs if any other player breaks the plane of the neutral zone.
Basically as long as the snapper has not touched the ball any player can encroach on the neutral zone (as long as 7-1-5 has not been violated) and get back with out committing a foul. A lot of smart offensive line coaches will have the line come up bend over, without placing their hands below the knee and have the snapper check the position of the linemen prior to touching the ball. The snapper can then tell a lineman to move back as required.
Dale Smith
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I stand corrected. If you look at 7-1-6 in the Illustrated it so pictures what you said.
To me it seems a contradiction of 2-8 or, at least, the word illegal is ambiguous because if yu are in the neutral zone after the ready and before the snapper places his hand on the ball according to 7-1-6 that is not illegal.
Of course, in practice, it would take an act of God for me to call one of those.
[Edited by Ed Hickland on May 19th, 2004 at 05:46 PM]