[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by donj
I had the original post on shoe laces and I would today, in the year 2002, allow a player to tie his shoes while the ball is dead, repeat while the ball is dead. It could become a safety issue if not tied and what's the harm, the ball's dead at the time?

The harm is that the Rules Committee amended the rules with the specific purpose of prohibiting game officials from stopping the game so that a player can tie his/her shoes. To delay making the ball live so that a player can tie his/her shoe is the same as granting their team an uncharged timeout. The Rules Committee wanted to prevent officials from granting a team uncharged timeout so that a player could tie his/her shoe.

Furthermore, an untied shoe is not a safety issue. A player can kneel down and tie his/her shoe anytime the player desires.