Illegal Forward Pass After Change of Possession in End Zone

[TussAgee11]

I'm a lurker from the Baseball board.

Was watching ESPN Classic today, Miami vs. Florida State from 1992 (yes, it was Wide Right).

Late in the game, FSU fielded a punt at their own 1 and momentum carried them into the endzone. As he was being tackled in the endzone, he threw the ball forward to avoid a safety. A Miami player recovered the ball in the end zone.

R ruled the ball was dead when the forward pass was incomplete. Therefore, a safety.

The nice part about all this was that Keith Jackson actually read the rule straight from the book, if an illegal forward pass is incomplete the ball is dead. EXCEPTION: if the pass comes from the endzone, the defense can either choose to accept the penalty (safety) or decline and take the play (TD).

He then commented that the White Hat maybe is using another rule or interpretation that has nothing to do with this rule, or perhaps the change of possession changes the penalty enforcement.

I thought this may be of some value on your board as a discussion on what the rule would be under today's rulebooks.

(p.s. i thought this would be a touchback, and if it is, you can change the original sitch to be caught and willfully ran into the endzone).

[BktBallRef]

A foul by Team A in their end zone results in a safety.

An incomplete pass cannot result in a TD.

Had he been tackled in the end zone, the ball would have come back to the 1 yard line.

Under no circumstances would it be a touchback.

The rule is no different today.

[TussAgee11]

My reasoning was it should be touchback because his momentum carried him into the end zone.

The "incomplete pass" you speak of was really a forward lateral. Does that matter?

Why would the ball come back to the 1 yard line when his own momentum carried him into the endzone, he stopped, and progressed by himself to try to get out of the endzone before any member of the kicking team contacted the returner?

Not my area of expertise, just asking questions. I'm intrigued by taking up football one day.

[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