I'm sure you guys have gotten this one before...

[Ed Hickland]

Think we are all in agreement that football rules are complicated and the average fan gets a good deal of their simplistic rule "knowledge" from the talking heads.

This play the ball was on the ground but the player was not and most of all he had control when he placed the ball on the ground. The loss of control occurred when he went to pick the ball up.

At what point and was he down when he lost control. The fine minds on this forum who study the rules will understand. The Arkansas fan who is fretting over losing the game thinks they were the victim of poor officiating.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Ed Hickland

Think we are all in agreement that football rules are complicated

They're complicated in toto, but not every single part of them is complicated. This part is simple.

and the average fan gets a good deal of their simplistic rule "knowledge" from the talking heads.

But the talking heads unnecessarily complicate this simple pair of rules (the one determining when a runner is down and the one determining when a ball is in player possession). There's nothing about causation in there, so why do they have to go putting that in?

Robert

[svm1010]

Ok, please don't flame but to be fair (what we're suposed to do right I have noticed that more of the "talking heads" appear to have been studying the rulebooks. I have heared some very acurate explanations to some wild A** plays over the past year or two. an improvement over the 'simplified rules' that they have been spoon feeding the average spectator. Still a long ways to go but at least some of them are making an attempt.