Inelligible Player?

[qcumpire]

This situation occured in a game last week.

Offensive team has 10 players in the huddle, the 11th player is on the field but has a minor leg injury. When they break the huddle, the injured player is headed for the sideline. The offensive coaches are yelling at that player to stay on the field. The player does not make it to the sideline and comes back toward the middle of the field. He does make it inside the numbers and lines up in a legal postion. The play is run and goes for a touchdown.

The defensive team then complains that the player that started to leave the field is an illegal substitution, saying he went toward the sideline and was not in the huddle.

Thoughts, opinions?

[raiderfan]

Was the injury an attempt by A to deceive B ? The answer could depend on how much did the injured player participate in the play. If he caught a TD pass, received a handoff, or made a crucial block on the play, I would have to evaluate just how "hurt" was the player.
By your description, the player was a player on the previous down and he remained a player throughout the TD play. He was inside the numbers and was legally set prior to the snap. He was never a substitute.
B's coaches saw him. Why didn't B players see him ? If he was covered by a B player at the snap, I would say legal play. The requirement to be inside the numbers was intended to stop A from "hiding" a wideout on the sideline and deceiving the B team.

[Mike L]

My opinion is it's time to line up for the try, because nothing illegal was done here. He never left the field, he got inside the numbers and set after the RFP. By rule, he met every requirement. Last I checked, there is no rule about how to head toward a sideline or any requirement about participating in a huddle. I don't particularly care how much he was limping along, there is no rule against that, unless he's limping enough where I'm concerned about his ability to participate, then I should be calling an injury timeout.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by qcumpire

Offensive team has 10 players in the huddle, the 11th player is on the field but has a minor leg injury. When they break the huddle, the injured player is headed for the sideline. The offensive coaches are yelling at that player to stay on the field. The player does not make it to the sideline and comes back toward the middle of the field. He does make it inside the numbers and lines up in a legal postion. The play is run and goes for a touchdown.

The defensive team then complains that the player that started to leave the field is an illegal substitution, saying he went toward the sideline and was not in the huddle.

CANADIAN RULING:

Legal.

[HLin NC]

Under this theory, every WR splitting out wide is guilty of a illegal substitution. Tell B to quit whining and play football.

[FeetBallRef]

Originally Posted by HLin NC

Tell B to quit whining and play football.

Telling them to quit whining is OK, don't tell them that "That's OK", this is to argumentative...

[Bob M.]

REPLY: As long as an official had not stopped the clock for his 'minor leg injury,' the other team had nothing legitimate to complain about.