Quote:
Originally Posted by bisonlj
And 99% of the time, the punter will not look for a receiver getting held and decide to punt the ball. You don't complicate a rule to allow for something that happens so rarely.
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It wasn't a matter of complicating an existing rule, but changing a previously existing one to eliminate the timing call mentioned by ppaltice -- although the thud of the foot on the ball has frequently been used as a time mark. I would think it'd be easier to rule on whether illegal use of hands by B took place before or after a ball was kicked than whether contact with a potential receiver was before or after a pass was released in that direction, because there's no sound when a pass is thrown. I also think the recent popularity of the running punt will present more "punt or pass optional" situations.
I can think of a couple of examples where Fed has altered a rule because the play situation was so rarely seen, they were afraid officials would err. One was when they banned kicks following CoP. The other, more recent, was banning forward passes following the 1st during a down. It was Fed that introduced multiple forward passes ca. 1940, starting with NCAA's rule that had never allowed the 2nd pass. The irony is that by having to rule on whether an initial pass was forward, they've given the officials more opp'ty to err.
But Fed hasn't applied the logic of rare plays to the free kick from a fair catch, which NCAA eliminated in 1950. Probably the thinking is since that's just another way to put the ball in play, it doesn't present officials with an unusual live ball situation.
Robert