Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob M.
REPLY: Never really thought of it, but the Fed rule book does address it implicitly, saying "A down is action which starts with a legal snap (beginning a
scrimmage down) or when the ball is kicked on a free kick (beginning a free-kick down)." So if they illegally kick the ball, it's not (by definition) the beginning of a down. So you can't let it just go on.
|
That's non sequitur, depending on what you mean by "it". Seems a literal reading of the rules would simply be that the dead ball "goes on" as it had before the ball was kicked.
Quote:
|
One might point to the words "...or when the ball is kicked on a free kick..," and question this as a possible ambiguity. But a "free kick" is defined in such a way that it must be a legal kick. Question is...what would you do after you shut it down?
|
I can't think of anything other than delay of game, for the reason I stated above: the likelihood that team B would
think the ball was in play, therefore a delay caused by team A's action.