Brain teaser

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Eastshire

Reread 9-6-2. It does not say return to the field. It says returns.

Answer this question: When A88 jumps in the air, is he touching OOB? The answer is no. Since he is not touching OOB he does not meet the definition of being OOB to wit "A player or other person is out of bounds when any part of the person is touching anything, other than another player or game official that is on or outside the sideline or end line."

By definition (although I grant you it's the Fed's definition, not yours) the player is not OOB. If he's not OOB but he was OOB, he has returned.

I will grant you that he has not returned to the field but that is not relevant to 9-6-2.

The ball is therefore not OOB when he touches it as it has not touched an OOB player (2-29-3) because the player is not touching OOB (2-29-1).

By touching the pass, A88 has participated (2-30). Since he intentionally went OOB but is no longer OOB (thus returned), his participation is illegal (9-6-2).

So A88 earns a flag for IP for not touching the ground when he touched the ball? That's going to make for some interesting, and difficult, calls along the sideline.

I don't believe any of you arguing for this position would even try to call this consistently. In the ordinary case where the ball or player holding it just lands out of bounds, you would rule on the spirit of the rule, as ajmc calls for explicitly, and call it a dead ball and no foul. The only reason you'd call it IP would be to save the other team from its being a completed pass in some of the extreme cases discussed here. And that's just hypocrisy.

Yeah, we know how the literal rules read. We know how a partly applicable case was stated in an interpretations book. But I don't believe a bit of it.