Forward Progress

[Opie]

This one is easy. 8-2-1. Possession of a live ball in the opponents endzone is always a touchdown.

[AZ_REF]

Originally Posted by Opie

This one is easy. 8-2-1. Possession of a live ball in the opponents endzone is always a touchdown.

But if forward progress was over the endline it wouldn't be a live ball anymore.

[Opie]

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

But if forward progress was over the endline it wouldn't be a live ball anymore.

So you are saying you will blow this dead while the player is still in the air because the ball is dead before he even comes down?? No way.
This ball is live until he comes down. At that point he is in the EZ with a live ball that then becomes dead because of the TD.

[Warrenkicker]

Possession requires touching the ground so you have to make sure he controls the ball until he has both feet down. Then you can rule on progress.

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

But if forward progress was over the endline it wouldn't be a live ball anymore.

This is a fair point, but the answer lies in 2-28-2 and 8-2-1b. The definition of OOB says nothing about forward progress - the receiver's not OOB until he touches OOB. And the rule on touchdowns doesn't mention the end line - it just says that a player has possession of a live ball on or beyond the opponents' goal line.

If you're still not convinced, consider this play: Receiver reaches over the end line to make a catch, with his feet still inbounds. I expect you'd rule TD on that play, and your example is more-or-less eqivalent.

[mcrowder]

The long and short is that the endline is meaningless until a ballcarrier touches the ground out of bounds or the ball touches a player that is out of bounds.

[AZ_REF]

Thanks for all the responses. I just like to play Devil's Advocate at meetings and bring stuff like this up to make some of the old timers think. I always felt that I would call this a touchdown, but I don't think the rules are 100% clear on this situation.