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I can't determine this with any document I can access right now, but I strongly suspect this is legacy language. Either it was put in (1) before there was a more general provision allowing the distance (portion of a) penalty to be declined for any foul, or (2) at a time when certain cases of batting the ball would've been classified as illegal passes and hence the pass could be occurring from some point other than the end of a run. In the case of 1, it would've been there to complete coverage of cases, because the rules state how to proceed after an incomplete legal forward pass but not an illegal one (other than via penalty).
Last edited by Robert Goodman; Tue Oct 16, 2012 at 12:40pm.
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