A difficult call to make, and more difficult to explain

[mcrowder]

You almost made my point for me until that last sentence.

If the ball went forward from the player, then according to every law of physics, the ball was going forward when it left the player's hands. The 18-mile an hour wind that was the player let go of a ball - that ball (minus the "small force" mentioned in the initial post) was, therefore, going forward at 18 mph. THIS WAS A FORWARD PASS. The "initial direction" was "toward the player's endline".

The only reason I mention wind is that it IS different from the player. If the player released the ball backward initially, and an outside force (i.e. a strong wind) caused the ball to blow forward, it sounds like FED has a backward pass, while NCAA has a forward pass.

But the player's momentum is, as you say, irrelevant - and not sufficient evidence to call this a backward pass. I say again. THIS WAS A FORWARD PASS.