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Originally Posted by bossman72
No. This commonly happens when the kicker expects the ball to be snapped and the snapper doesn't snap the ball right away... So the kicker "stutter steps" forward (like Kasay did) in anticipation of the late snap. It's actually a DISadvantage
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It's a disadvantage to do it by accident. It would be an advantage to start forward early on purpose if they timed it right. I'm not saying it would be easy, or they would do so routinely in Canadian football, where I haven't seen it, but I still think it's enough of a potential advantage that it should be flagged.
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But yes, I've seen this happen a couple times in my lifetime where the kicker "stutters" before he starts. I always wondered if this was illegal/forward motion or a false start... but it was never called.
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I don't know why officials wouldn't flag a kicker's illegal motion as easily as other cases of a back's unintentionally beating the count. However, if the "stutter" was a step forward, then a step backward, it's not illegal motion because the back was not moving forward when the snap began. It could be seen as simulating the start of play, and several months ago here there was a thread on whether to call a false start when a back accidentally starts early.
Robert