Quote:
Originally Posted by RealityCheck
That's exactly how the CFL calls it in "stop time" in the last 3:00 of each half. The right to run the play is lost when the ball isn't snapped in time.
A team shouldn't be rewarded for running time off the clock at the end of a half or game, take a delay penalty, and then still get to run the play over again.
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LD used to be the penalty for any failure to snap in time in Canadian football, and it had a certain "use it or lose it" logic. However, that logic fails when you realize team A could always commit a foul preventing the ball from being put in play with a second left on the time count, and loss of down seems much too great a penalty for most such infractions.
However, this whole business of setting up fast to spike the ball is an artifact of a more basic distortion-inducing timing rule: handling timing between downs differently depending on how the ball last became dead. Address that one and you'll be on your way to getting rid of the chaos.