Quote:
Originally Posted by requintero
A1's fumble was not a try for goal ...
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Of course it's a try. It's an attempt to throw for a goal (habitual throwing movement to start a try).
Was the try released, which would have ended team control? Aye, there's the rub.
I, for one, believe that the try was released. It was an ugly, unsuccessful release, but it was a release.
Team control ends on the release of a try. White 3 can legally recover the ball at any time, even legally taking steps to do such, and can legally do anything with it, pass, shoot, dribble, or request a time out.
To play Devil's advocate, some might say that the try ends when it is certain the throw is unsuccessful, that the fumble came before the release, thus ending the try before the release, which maintained team control for the White Team. In this case White 3 could legally recover the ball, even legally taking steps to do such, because a player can always recover an accidental, unintentional fumble, but White 3 may be limited to what he can legally do next depending on what preceded the accidental, unintentional fumble. In this case he already lifted his pivot foot to shoot, so the Devil probably (having trouble finding a rule citation for this) wouldn't allow him to legally start a new dribble.
But I'm not the Devil, I'm only his advocate, and as Flip Wilson used to say, "The Devil made me do it".