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Originally Posted by ajmc
At the HS level recent rule revision require that all substitutions be completed in a prompt manner which require the replaced player to "immediately" remove himself from the field. Immediately is intentionally left as a flexible term determined by the good judgment and common sense of the field officials. There is no set time for the dead ball period between downs and that interval may differ greatly within a game between teams and situations.
Substitutions occur at any time during the dead ball interval so the time available to count, or recount players varies between plays.
When an official observes more than 11 players in a formation, which would include a replaced player delaying leaving a formation, during the dead ball period that constitutes an illegal substitution (NF: 3.7). That foul would also cover a replaced player leaving a formation who does not manage to exit the field before the play begins, or exits the field improperly.
Illegal participation (NF: 9.6) involves more than 11 people participating in the play.
In general officials try and determine if there is a substitution infraction before EVERY down begins, but because of the conjestion, player movement and time available an exact count is either not completed or completed accurately. The clear objective is to catch any illegal substitution infractions before they develop into illegal participation situations, but that is not always possible.
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Then I'm afraid that by making that rule change, Fed has set up their officials for a lot of grief as herein. Used to be no particular requirement for the immediacy of the substitution, and if a team was hit with illegal participation, that was their problem. The new rule was probably adopted to keep team A from gaining an advantage deliberately or accidentally by delaying the exit of replaced players until team B couldn't do much about it -- like the way the Cincy Bengals offense would come up to the line and then "shift" their backs in a way that included the bench!
Now, no matter what anyone says, the illegal participation resulting from too many players at the time the ball is put in play is
not only the offending team's fault. By making it
possible for the officials to prevent play, they've made the foul depend partly on action/inaction by players and partly on action/inaction by officials.
This isn't the 1st time Fed has set up such a situation. In the 1960s, encroachment caused the ball to remain dead
unless the ball was put in play before the official was able to whistle. The penalty was the same, but in one case the nonoffending team had the ability to take the result of the play.
Maybe Fed should've limited the application of the new rule to team A, although the Minn. Vikings apparently believed the defense could gain an advantage by huddling with 17 until the NFL banned that practice along with the Bengals' tactic.
The trouble is that Fed has created a dead ball violation that occurs at no particular moment. The wing officials can't "put up the gates" as in Canadian football. There are other ways this could be remedied by making the substitution process more formal and constrained as in the old days when subs had to report to the umpire -- it doesn't have to be exactly that, but something.
Robert
Fri Sep 12, 2008, 01:24pm
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