In the Hula Bowl there was in illegal forward pass on a 99 yard return for a TD of a fumble. Seeing it live, I thought it was a backwards pass, but the replay showed the crew got it right.
The reason this could be such a difficult call is the momentum of the player running at about 18 mph downfield. Here is what I mean. The runner is burning down the field, at 18 mph, and releases the ball at exactly the B-30, with the initial direction parallel or toward the runners endline. The problem is he does not release the ball with much force, so by the time his teammate fields the ball, he is at the B-25. The forward momentum the ball had when being carried by the runner moved the ball 5 more yards downfield, even though the initial direction was backwards. So you cannot go by the point of the release of the ball and the point of the catch, because you would rule forward when it was backwards. Now you see it is backwards, so have no flag down, but it is not going to be that easy to convince the coach of this momentum of the ball reasoning of how he released it backwards but the ball ended up 5 yards further downfield.
Your thoughts!?
|