Illegal Forward Pass After Change of Possession in End Zone

[BktBallRef]

It's known as the momentum rule. If a defnder or kick returner field a ball in flight inside his own 5 yard line and his momentum then carries him onto the end zone where he is tackled, the ball comes back to the spot where he caught the ball. It makes no difference whether he tried to run out of the EZ or not.

There's no such thing as a forward lateral. There are only forward passes and backwards passes. A pitcher is fields a bunt and tosses the ball to the first baseman. Does it matter if the ball is tossed underhanded or overhanded? Of course not. It doesn't matter in football either.

An incomplete forward pass always causes the ball to become dead.

[wisref2]

On minor correction - the momentum exception rule now applies to balls that are caught or recovered - so you don't have to catch a ball in flight for it to apply. It also applies to grounded fumbles, passes, etc.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by BktBallRef

There's no such thing as a forward lateral. There are only forward passes and backwards passes. A pitcher fields a bunt and tosses the ball to the first baseman. Does it matter if the ball is tossed underhanded or overhanded? Of course not. It doesn't matter in football either.

It doesn't, but "of course not" takes it too far, because the rule could have been written to make it matter. When the forward pass was first legalized in Canadian football, one requirement was that it cross the line of scrimmage. A few years later they legalized forward passes completed behind the line of scrimmage, provided the ball was not thrown overhand, and that was the way it remained for a good number of years.

If it matters in softball pitching, there's no a priori reason it couldn't matter in football.

Robert