Snap infraction question

[ajmc]

Sorry, I just don't comprehend what you are trying to say.

[mbyron]

If the snap is never completed, then the ball never becomes live. A snap infraction is thus a dead ball foul.

A false start occurs before the snap, and that foul prevents the ball from becoming live. As we know, a whistle recognizes a dead ball but does not cause one (other than IW).

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by ajmc

Sorry, I just don't comprehend what you are trying to say.

I meant that the provision specifying that the ball "remains" dead on an illegal snap makes sense only because the snap is required to be quick. The time between when the snap begins and when it becomes clear either that it's legal or that it's illegal is so short that practically nothing else significant can happen during that interval, so that ruling it as having remained dead (technically retroactively) is no bother.

If the snap were allowed to be slow, then by the time a snap became manifest as illegal, live ball illegal activity could have occurred in that interval, and then you'd have a dilemma if the rules said that the ball was dead all that time.

Robert