Brain teaser

[ajmc]

Originally Posted by Eastshire

A receiver goes OOB without being forced or remains OOB after being forced out. He has lost his eligibility to touch a forward pass. He then leaves OOB and touches a pass which bounds off of him to another receive who catches it and advances the ball to the end zone for an apparent TD.

The original receiver's touch is a foul, but it does not kill the play because the receiver is no longer OOB.

It doesn't matter if the receiver goes back to the hash marks or merely jumps in the air over OOB, if he's not touching OOB, he's not OOB. Throw your flag and let play continue.

Appreciate your input, Eastshire, but I can't agree with your assessment. NF:7-5-6-d advises, "A player who is eligible at the start of the down remains eligible throughout the down.", so eligibility is never "lost".

"Illegal Touching" (NF: 7-5-13" applies to, "An Ineligible A player has illegally touched a forward pass if he bats, muffs or catches a legal forward pass, unless the pass has first been touched by B", so any player (eligible or ineligible) who touches a pass OOB has not violated any rule and deserves no penalty. The touching simply kills the play.

If that A player (eligible or ineligible) is OOB (unforced) and comes back onto the field and participates (by touching, batting, catching or other wise participating in the play) they then commit the foul of Illegal Participation (NF: 9-6).

NF: 1-1-2 clearly defines, "The game football is played with an inflated ball by two teams on a retangular field 360 by 160 feet.", and a number of rules, including those mentioned above, deal with separating that playing surface from that which is considered OOB.

For more than 100 years there didn't seem to be much confusion about the separation of Inbounds and OOB, until this "unusual" interpretation briefly surfaced suggesting that a player clearly OOB could eliminate his inability to legally participate by simply jumping up into the air, while OOB.

I'm afraid I can't accept your advice, "Throw your flag and let play continue", because unless and until that OOB player comes back onto the playing surface and participates in the play, he has not done anything wrong.

My judgment, based on my understanding of the intent of this basic football concept (separating inbounds from OOB) is that considering that touching by an OOB player, whether touching the ground or jumping back into the air, produces the same result, of killing the ball.

As I've repeated stated, my judgment dictates ONLY my behavior, you need to determine what YOU believe correct and and follow your judgment.