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Originally Posted by waltjp
Robert, highly unlikely situation to be sure, but in your example what happens when A throws 4 consecutive incomplete passes and B takes over on downs? Does the R signal first down for B followed by signaling TD?
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That was exactly the problem I pointed out in this thread, and here previously, and to Brice Durbin of Fed in 1980.
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Mike L has it right. You can't place the ball in such a way that any portion of it is in the end zone.
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So how do you place it, and what is the rules justif'n for doing so, when the dead ball spot is so close to the goal line that rotating it while preserving its foremost point would put a portion of it in the end zone?
I've seen it done in the NFL. And the rule book provisions seem to require the same in all major USAn codes, Brice Durbin's informal workaround nothwithstanding. But I've no idea how they would handle the turnover on downs problem posed above.
I believe the current rules provisions regarding awards when part of a dead ball is in an end zone apply only as the ball
becomes dead or a spot is
awarded, not during the readying of a ball for play or the handling of a dead ball pre-play. Otherwise you'd be giving a TD when a player of A adjusting the ball for a snap close to B's goal line inadvertently moves it over the plane of the goal line for a moment.
However, there was a time in American and Canadian football when TDs were awarded during the administration of a dead ball. When A carried the ball over a side line behind an opponent's goal line, a player of A would walk the ball in 5 to 15 paces or yards, and touch it down, which action was required for the score. The same occurred before the forward progress rule, and the runner would say "down" and be allowed to put the ball down -- ordinarily for scrimmage, but if beyond the goal line, a TD.
The rules were later changed in ways that would abolish such formailities, but when the rule making an incomplete forward pass dead and returned to the previous spot, the possibility of the strange occurrence mentioned above when the ball's turned over on downs was unaccounted for.
Robert