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Originally Posted by waltjp
Robert, they could have just as easily called it 'long snap formation' or something else. My guess is there's a 7-yard requirement because that's where most teams kick set their holding when attempting a scoring kick.
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But that's exactly the point! They did a favor to accommodate tactics in a particular type of play situation that'd been common. Similar to what NFL did when they wrote special rules applicable narrowly to players who take the snap.
Another example was when soccer style place kicking became common, and it became clear that the best form had the opposite foot plant forward of the ball's spot. To have the kicker stay onside on free kicks, some were placing the ball enough behind the awarded spot to allow that foot to stay onside, but the rules makers in various codes allowed an exception for the kicker so they wouldn't have to do that. In this case, they wrote the rule to apply regardless of which style of kick was used, but they could've written it narrowly to apply only to soccer style kicking.
As certain styles of play become common, frequently there's a choice between coaches & players adapting to the rules on one hand, and the rules makers adapting to the wishes of certain numbers of coaches & players on the other. I'm sure we're in the middle of this with A-11, and it remains to be seen what the outcome will be.
Robert