Losing a down

[Robert Goodman]

OK, so supposing it's discovered before the ball is made ready for play by the other team -- or maybe even a little after, but before they're on the ball -- or even just before they've snapped it -- or even later, if you want to go that far. I do think a correction is called for up to some point, but what fix do you apply?

Do you say that 4th down should've been labeled 3rd, and give a real 4th down? What if one or both teams thought the phony 4th down was really 4th down? They would've played that down differently, I think.

Do you go back to the first mislabeled down? Teams may have shown each other things in the meantime that they were keeping as surprises.