When Did This Rule Go Into Effect

[Ed Hickland]

Originally Posted by ajmc

Might it be the way you are phrasing the question. No rule does, "prevent a defender from blocking a receiver running his route", up to and including that point that the received poses a blocking threat to the defender. Once the receiver ceases to be a threat, going past or away from the defender, contacting that receiver can be defensive holding.

If the defensive player is skilled enough to keep the receiver between himself and the ball, all the way down the field, he can legally initiate contact on the receiver, because the receiver still constitutes a blocking threat, up until the point a forward pass is actually thrown

Well, not quite.

If you read the rule it states when it he is "no longer a potential blocker." That is somewhat ambiguous. If you look at the proposal to the rules committee what it means is when the eligible receiver is even with or past the defender he can no longer contact the receiver. And, if you have a Simplified and Illustrated the intent of the rule becomes painfully clear.

The penalty is illegal use of hands.