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Originally Posted by maddisonsdad
hello all, I coach youth football in michigan and have some knowledge of the game however I have been confused on the subject of "covered or uncovered ends". I have used different formations with trips and motion what is the standard rule for legal receivers in trips formations I realize that 7 must be on the line but is there other rules regarding whos on and whos off to detemine whos eligible?
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Frequently in youth football uniform numbering rules are not used or enforced, and that may not be clear unless you confer with the referee! Hopefully your league should clear that up. Pop Warner rules are uniform (modified from current Fed rules), but AYF allows its affiliate circuits to adopt any rules for play among themselves. Frequently there will also be different rules at different classes of play (e.g. Mighty Mite vs. Jr. Pee-Wee, etc.).
Disregard anything about what positions your players
consider themselves or play in
practice sessions. Their roster listings have nothing to do with their rules positions. (Leagues may have different weight or age limits for linemen from backs, but I don't think the field officials enforce those.) Of the players legally on the line of scrimmage on offense, the one closest to either sideline is an end, period. This applies from the time the ball is snapped until the ball next becomes dead, regardless of how that player was positioned on any other down. This is true regardless of whether the formation is legal or not. If the player is an end, s/he's eligible to receive forward passes, if your circuit does not apply shirt numbering rules. If your circuit does apply such rules, then additionally the end's shirt must have a number that's an integer from 1 thru 49 or 80 thru 99 for the end to be eligible to receive forward passes. (It is possible for an otherwise ineligible player to become a legal forward pass receiver during a down, but let's not go into that now.) Backs and a "T" quarterback are eligible to receive forward passes too, with the same caveats concerning shirt numbers.
As you can see by the above, there's no such thing as a "covered end" as far as the use of the term "end" as a position in the rules. If the player you usually think of as an offensive end has another player on the line closer to the sideline, the player you were previously thinking of as an end is not an end, and the player who is closer to that sideline is the end on that side. If the ball is snapped, that's the way it counts. Your roster is immaterial.
If your game is not played with numbering rules, then 7 or more legally set on the line of scrimmage at the snap is a legal formation. If it is played with numbering rules, then 5 or more of those players on the line have to have ineligible receiver numbers (50 thru 79). (I'll leave the scrimmage kick formation exemption out of this.)
In the unlikely event that your circuit bases its formation and numbering rules on NFL's, then the ends must not have an ineligible receiver number, regardless of whether a pass is thrown, and of players on the line of scrimmage, only the ends may have eligible receiver numbers. Same with backs and quarterback in NFL rules. But they have a procedure by which prior to each play, a team can report exceptions to those numbering rules which info the officials relay to the defense.
Although for many purposes the term "wide receiver" is useful in coaching, it would help if coaches kept using the older terms "split end" and "flanker" to make clear in practice which are ends (on the line) and which backs (legally in the backfield, entirely behind the nearest line player), and to steer clear of terminology like "tight end in motion". Think in terms of the formation, not roster listings. In determining who can be in motion or receive forward passes, the officials don't care how a player is listed in your roster!
Robert