illegal forward pass

[Robert Goodman]

NFL & Fed inherited their rules from NCAA and so share the term "neutral zone", which goes back to the first decade of the 20th Century. To avoid the locution "beyond team B's line" (or "in advance of team B's line"), which would leave unclear from which team's perspective "beyond" would mean, they refer to the neutral zone in the rules on these provisions, which avoid mention of team B. I still wish they'd write "on team X's side of" instead of "beyond" and "behind", to be really clear.

The only difference in terminology here arises from playing "telephone" thru a sports reporter instead of quoting the rule book.

Robert