Dec. Referee football quiz ? # 4.

[JMN]

Where do you spot the ball on a fumble out of bounds?

1) Where the ball goes out.

>> Rule 2-28-3: " A loose ball is out of bounds when it touches anything, including a player or game offical, who is out of bounds."

>> Rule 4-3-1: "When a loose ball goes out of bounds, the out-of-bounds spot is fixed by the yard line where the foremost point of the ball crossed the sideline."


2) Where the ball was in last possession (the spot where he fumbled).

According to my interpretation of the rules, the spot where the run ended (where the player lost possession/fumbled), has no impact on this play. This would only be important if you had a penalty that needed to be enforced from the end of the run, but not for determining the dead ball spot of the ball for this play.

A live ball remains live until it is determined to be a dead ball by Rule 4-2 including Article 2b: "The ball becomes dead and the down is ended: When a live ball goes out of bounds."

Think about it, Rock. If a QB threw a backward pass over the back's head out of bounds, you wouldn't spot the ball where he threw from, would you? It would go back to the spot that the ball broke the plane of the sideline. Same application here. Make sense?