Fed Question

[Bob M.]

Originally Posted by Stripe

But Ed, the defense can substitute up until the snap, cant' they?

REPLY: Sure...they can substitute up till the snap. What I think Ed's saying is that the defense can't put more than 11 plyers out there and then just wait to see what formation the offense comes out in and then pull off the players they don't need. It's really very simple: For either A or B. when a substitute enters, the replaced player must begin to leave in a few seconds. If he doesn't it's a dead ball foul for illegal substitution. So that if a team has more than 11 players on the field, it can only for a few seconds--just the reasonable timeframe for the excess replaced players to be notified that they've been replaced and begin to leave the field.