Ok guys, what are your thoughts on this?

A81 goes in motion from the slot. As he gets to the tackle closest to him, he continues his motion and heads away from the line of scrimmage. He bascially runs behind the deepest guy in the backfield, HB or whatever. When I coached last year we called it a bow motion. Now, after he pass the HB he continues his motion and gradually (as not to simulate the snap) heads towards the line.

Would this be considered illegal motion because he is heading towards the line of scrimmage? Thoughts? Rules references?

[Edited by grantsrc on Oct 14th, 2005 at 06:33 AM]

NCAA Illegal motion 7-1-3-b-4

Was this Canadian Football? Sounds illegal in all codes I know of.

It is illegal motion in NF as well.

After reading my original post, I forgot to leave out that he doesn't head straight towards the line. He continues away from his original position, he just makes kind of a ) shape with his motion around the HB. Still illegal? What if he is heading parallel to the LOS at the time of the snap?

You just mentioned the key, that he be moving parallel at the snap.

It's his motion at the snap that's important. I've seen this type of motion before, and if they do it right, they bow around the backs, but by the time the ball is snapped, they are not headed toward the los.

Parallel is ok. Any angle, even very slight, toward the LOS is not ok.