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Originally Posted by Robert Goodman
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
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Makes sense. Please understand, I don't have a dog in this fight. Being fair to both parties is what's at issue for me here. Penalizing the defense awarding a score when you can't be sure or that seems doubtful doesn't seem to fit either. BTW, the end result of the play would have been a turnover. Isn't there a rule that says you can't fumble the ball forward into the endzone?
If the official would have come together and consulted with the official in the endzone or near the middle to determine if the player had control, would have sold it for me because now you're considering every possible angle. The official straddling the line can verify that the ball crossed the plane, what he can't confirm is if the player had control when the ball crossed the plane. It's all good, I realized it's not an exact science. Something so important, it just seems like at a minimum, there should have been a conference.