Blocking Below The Waist

[Mike L]

"The key to simplifying this unnecessarily complicated discussion is to remember that the position of a player without the ball makes no difference to judging whether the ball leaves the FBZ. You don't have to watch the player taking the snap at all, only the ball. Who cares whether the player was moving backward or forward or stationary at the time he caught it?"

And if he sets up right on that 3 yd line, don't you think seeing his action at the moment he catches the snap might possibly help you determine where the ball is?

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Mike L

"The key to simplifying this unnecessarily complicated discussion is to remember that the position of a player without the ball makes no difference to judging whether the ball leaves the FBZ. You don't have to watch the player taking the snap at all, only the ball. Who cares whether the player was moving backward or forward or stationary at the time he caught it?"

And if he sets up right on that 3 yd line, don't you think seeing his action at the moment he catches the snap might possibly help you determine where the ball is?

Nope. It's not like the ball is going to disappear into his interior as he catches it. If he's moving backward, the ball will be caught with the hands out front, and if he's moving forward, it will be against the chest or waist. Before any of that happens, you must "see" the back boundary of the FBZ. If the proposed rule is adopted that the FBZ is deemed retroactively to have dissolved at the instant the snap began, if the snap ended outside the FBZ, then if any BBW occurs you need only see where the snap ended.

When somebody's catching a pass near the opposing goal line, do you watch the receiver's body motion as the ball approaches to try to project where the catch will take place? I think not.

Robert