Translation issues

[Ed Hickland]

Originally Posted by zys

A.R. 7-3-8-XIX states:

On a legal forward pass beyond the neutral zone, A80 and B60 are attempting to catch the pass thrown to A80’s position. A14, who is not attempting to catch the pass, blocks B65 downfield, either before the pass is thrown or while the uncatchable pass is in flight. RULING: Team A foul, offensive pass interference. Penalty—15 yards from the previous spot.

Why is this a foul if the pass was not catchable by B65 or hadn´t been thrown?

Rules are about equal advantage. In this case A14 is restricted from blocking because he knows or should know a pass play is in progress (NFHS 7-5-7 - 15 yards and loss of down).

A B player who does not know the play is restricted from interference with receiving a pass until when the pass is in the air on theory B has to guess until the pass is thrown whether the play is a pass play.

However, during the late 80s defensive backs gained an advantage when they began "chucking" offensive receivers -- blocking them off their routes by basically giving them a shove. NCAA and NFHS (9-2-3d) made this illegal use of hands to keep the rules in balance as chucking had given the defense an unfair advantage.