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Originally Posted by a4caster
As far as flagging this, I would tend to defer to whether or not it caused the D to encroach.
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If that's your only criterion, then no problem because there wouldn't be time for team B to encroach. The hand would be so close to the ball to begin with that because it'd be done in one motion, there'be only a tiny fraction of a second between when the hand began to move and when the ball did. That's the whole point of my question -- no pause for
that hand.
It's not as if the point of my idea is to set up a subtle kind of false start with the other hand. But that doesn't seem to be the point of the requirement to pause before snapping the ball after touching and optionally adjusting it. Rather, the point of the rule seems not to have to do with the defense's reacting spuriously or too soon, but reacting too late. The point seems to be to put the defense on notice as to when the ball is liable to be snapped. The snapper isn't allowed to start fiddling with the ball and then sneak in a snap, such that team B can't tell which motion of the ball actually puts it in play. Neither is the snapper allowed to position himself near the ball and just snatch it to snap it. But what I have is a case that's arguably either way, where one hand is used to touch and optionally adjust the ball, and then after a clear pause the hand that wasn't touching it is used to snap it. Team B is put on notice that the ball is liable to be snapped because a team A player has a hand on it and the movement of the ball has stopped.
Robert