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Originally Posted by Old School
I meant right before the goal. Again, I am not an NFL or football official. It just seems like a stretch to award the TD when the player lost control of the FB trying to stick it over the plane. At what point does control have to be, when reaching it out? In basketball, when a player shoots a 3 and you don't see his foot behind the line, it's a 2 point goal. Point is, I need to be sure to be able to rule it a 3. I just don't see how the official could be sure in that situation.
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Let's say the officials do lose sight of the ball and that there's no means for review. In the basketball situation you have either a 2- or 3-point goal; if the ball went in the basket those are your only choices. In the football situation described, let's say nobody was sure whether the ball in possession touched the plane of the goal line. What do you rule then? The ball has to be spotted
somewhere. You can't simply adopt a rule of thumb that says don't award a touchdown unless you see it, because if it's not a touchdown then where does your rule of thumb say to put the ball? So the officials have to take their best guess of where the ball wound up, and "in the end zone" should be given just as much consideration as anywhere in the field of play.
Robert