Pass attempt breaks the plane
Team A has ball on (or inside) team B's 1 yard line. The passer stands close to (or on) the LOS. He attempts to pass into the end zone. If, while his arm moves forward, the ball "breaks the plane" before leaving the passer's hand, is it a TD? Or do we have a legal or illegal forward pass?
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NFHS 8-2-ART. 1 . . . Possession of a live ball in the opponent's end zone is always a touchdown.
a. It is a touchdown when a runner advances from the field of play so that the ball penetrates the vertical plane of the opponent's goal line. |
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So it's not considered a pass until the ball leaves his hand?
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A ball is either in player possession or its not.
2-32-ART. 1 . . . Passing the ball is throwing a ball that is in player possession. In a pass, the ball travels in flight. The act of passing and a pass are different things. |
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Once the ball crosses the plane in player possession its a TD and the ball is dead.
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I might as well amplify on the reason the answer is "no". When a live ball becomes loose, it can be ruled retroactively to have been a forward pass based on motion of the extremity holding the ball before it became loose. That's it -- ruling on a loose ball as to whether it was a forward pass, as opposed to a backward pass or fumble. If the ball wasn't live and loose, the prior motion of the ball while it was still held has no bearing on anything. The intention of the player to make a forward pass has no bearing on anything. I don't see why this should require so much thought. You wouldn't have a problem if the runner's knee touched the ground before he got a pass away, would you? Or if his foot touched a sideline, right? The ball's touching the vertical plane of the opposing goal line while in a player's possession is a case of the same thing. It could happen because a player looking for a receiver can't always be expected to know where the goal line is. In Federation rules, a player with a long reach might even have a foot in a place from which he could throw a legal forward pass when the ball touches that plane. |
Here is a situation where I could see this happening. QB is rolling out and thinks he is going to be hit as he approaches the goal line. He sees a receiver wide open in the back corner of the end zone and attempts a shovel pass to the receiver. As he is diving, but before the ball leaves his hands, the ball breaks the plane of the goal line. In this situation the player will have scored a touchdown, and most likely still would have had a portion of his body on or behind the LOS when the pass was released.
I can see the argument if you make a call for a TD and the receiver were to drop the ball though. |
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NCAA: If ANY part of the passer's body is behind the neutral zone, it is a legal forward pass (other things notwithstanding). Sorry I don't have an immediate rule reference. So, there's clearly no foul. Its just a matter of how the wing or covering official rules on the ball in the QB's hand breaking the plane. By the way it is stated, that would be a TD.
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Yes, it's a TD and the wings better sell it, especially if it falls incomplete.
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We have a TD signal and an incomplete signal already.
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Let's delve further into this.
In a 5 man crew who is going to see this, I say no one? Once the wings read pass they are sliding downfield, the U is probably not going to have a good enough view for that call and the R is deep. 7-man is different, wings don't slide downfield, but probably going to be hard to pick up. |
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Once the quarterback scrambles, doesn't anybody get in position to tell whether a forward pass is legal? |
Coverage on these situations is often a collaboration between the Umpire and Referee.
For an IP thrown from clearly beyond the line, The R is responsible for judging "Intent" on a pass deliberately thrown incomplete to avoid loss of yardage, or thrown into an area without eligible receivers (Wing officials may offer assistance regarding receivers who may have cut the wrong way, fell or otherwise were prevented from following a planned route) For passes beyond/ behind the NZ, both the R and U have responsibility for breaches of the NZ. the R, following the passer needs to determine the spot form which the pass was thrown, and when necessary carefully beanbag that spot, and continue officiating. The U usually retreating to the area of the LOS, when determining "pass", to best observe the area of LOS blocking, should also mark the "spot of the pass" with a beanbag, and also continue officiating. After the play is completed, either/both beanbags should be checked (against the down marker) to determine whether the NZ has been violated. If so, a delayed flag should be thrown. As always, if more than 1 official is involved with the actual call, they should confer, review and agree on a single decision, BEFORE and signals are given. |
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Say the R and U both were looking at the passer's feet as he threw, and got their beanbags very well spotted. Would anybody have been looking at the ball and the goal line? If they walk up to where the beanbags are, decide the forward pass was illegal, and then try to deduce the enforcement spot, is anybody likely to say the end of the run (where the ball was) was in the end zone? If they decide the pass was legal, then they're not even concerned with an enforcement spot. It occurs to me now that if everybody -- quarterback, officials, onlookers -- was thinking "pass", then missing a call like this on the goal line is not such a big deal. |
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Likely, until then, we'll have to continue relying on the common sense and skill of whomever the 4, 5, 6 or 7 assigned to the game are able to provide. |
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Since the NFL, NCAA and Fed all started with the same rules committee after the forward pass came into the game, I wonder whether which one changed this determination of whether the pass is legal. It'd be interesting to know why. |
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What I'd like to look up some time is whether the NFL changed it, or NCAA with Fed copying the motif, or Fed with NCAA copying. |
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