Monday Night football

[Smiley]

Originally Posted by JasonTX

This is why you don't walk it off. Look at the spot where the ball is and go straight to the succeeding spot. Since you know that the ball will be 3 inches short, then guestimate the 3 inches and place the ball. I've seen officials try to walk off yardage and end up going either 4 yards or 7 yards for a 5 yard penalty.

OK, I've thought about this some more. The difference between the line to gain and the box location is that once set, the box is the official spot for the ball's location, whereas when the ball is near the line to gain, the ball has just been spotted and is therefore the official location. What this means is there is no need to measure to see where the ball is in relation to the tape, since the box represents the official location of the ball. As someone pointed out, the center may have made an adjustment, or there may have been an incomplete pass before the 5 yard foul was committed. We would have placed the ball according to the box location. The time to measure if at all is when the box is initially placed near the tape. I am not advocating that this be done, but it does bring out the importance of making sure the box is correctly located when it is first placed near the tape, either in front of or behind.