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Old Tue Aug 12, 2008, 12:06pm
JugglingReferee JugglingReferee is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Careyy
The neutral zone stays the same, A's leading edge of the ball is B's trailing edge and vice versa.

Given only the leading edge of the ball matters for a TD, it makes sense.

Crews I've worked on make the switch with the chains. It is called football and not inch ball, but this one is easy to get right.
You forgot first downs.

I realize that I'm Canadian, and didn't grow up with the American game, but it doesn't make sense.

Football is in fact a game of inches. Two recent professional cases in point: Tyree's catch - an inch more and he doesn't catch that ball, and NE completes a season that could never be topped. There was a team a few years ago that was stopped about 18 inches short of the goalline for a Superbowl win.

I think football has two fundamentals: forward progress and field position. Team A earned field position to the 40 yard line going in, therefore B should start there, not gaining a free 11½ inches of field position, just because it's "easier" to move the chains a few inches, or to keep the same neutral zone.
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