holding in the endzone

[mcrowder]

Originally Posted by cougar729

While B's ball carrier was not in danger of a safety, your still holding in the endzone and whether the result is a TB, safety, or other, that team is still responsible for fouling behind their own goalline, regardless of what they were trying to prevent.

I agree with you that that's how the rule is currently written.

The issue, for me, is that a safety requires some pretty specific things - a player with the ball, outside his own endzone, bringing it back into his own endzone and being stuck there, unable to get out. Except in this one incongruous instance, where a player has the ball in his own EZ because of the OTHER team putting it there, and solely due to an accident of timing, someone fouls while he's still in there (even if he's only got it for 2 seconds, and is in the process of kneeling down).

The logic of the normal play (A foul in the EZ while A has the ball in the EZ) makes sense - if not for the foul, it's possible that there would be a safety - so the penalty for illegally preventing a safety should be ... a safety.

The logic of this one makes no sense - if not for the foul, B would have the ball on the 20. The foul does not prevent A from scoring 2 points and getting the ball back - so the penalty for that foul should not be 2 points and getting the ball back. The punishment doesn't fit the crime, so to speak.