illegal shift or illegal motion

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by kdf5

All 11 players stop for one second, which is a shift. Then two players go in motion, legally, since all players had stopped for one second. Both are moving at the snap. That is illegal motion. Had one of the two in motion stopped moving and the other kept going to the snap, then you would have had an illegal shift because if the one stopped moving then the other would have had to stop too for one second.

kdf5, I don't think this is correct. Think of it this way: if you were designing a play, would you put 2 players in motion? Of course not: that can't ever be legal as a motion play. So it isn't: when 2 players or more are moving it's a shift, and if they don't come set it's an illegal shift.

With one player in motion, you have the possibility of legal motion. If he does something wrong (moves toward the LOS, for instance), then the motion becomes illegal motion.

The fouls here are based on the idea that whatever the team is doing starts out legal, and if they screw it up it's illegal. So having two players moving at the snap would have to be an illegal shift.