what do you have???

bigjohn · #1 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 14, 2011, 09:13am

I agree if the snapper just spins the ball and rolls it, it is illegal snap, but he lofts it just a bit and rotates his wrist to make the ball land and roll it is legal.

MD Longhorn · #2 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 14, 2011, 10:04am

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigjohn

I agree if the snapper just spins the ball and rolls it, it is illegal snap, but he lofts it just a bit and rotates his wrist to make the ball land and roll it is legal.

Seems to me we're picking nits that were not intended by the rulesmakers (not that I was in the room!). What would be the purpose of insisting that the ball leave the ground infinitessimally during a snap? Sounds like we're just creatively trying to force an admittedly undefined section of the rule to fit the answer you want, rather than deriving the answer from the rules themselves.

bigjohn · #3 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 14, 2011, 11:28am

The rules say the snap can hit the ground, balls roll when they hit the ground, who is picking nits here?

MD Longhorn · #4 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 14, 2011, 01:19pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigjohn

The rules say the snap can hit the ground, balls roll when they hit the ground, who is picking nits here?

Against my better judgement ... what exactly are you disagreeing with me about, and how am I picking a nit at all... I'm saying let it go. The fact that the OP would be ruled illegal by some, but legal if the ball moved even a millimeter off the ground ... there's your nit.

cmathews · #5 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 14, 2011, 01:45pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Against my better judgement ... what exactly are you disagreeing with me about, and how am I picking a nit at all... I'm saying let it go. The fact that the OP would be ruled illegal by some, but legal if the ball moved even a millimeter off the ground ... there's your nit.

soooo how far oob does a player have to be to be out of bounds...is a couple millimeters the same as being in?? or is a couple millimeters considered out?? : )

MD Longhorn · #6 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 14, 2011, 02:13pm

Completely different - I think even you would agree... but to keep with your point ... if I can SEE that they have stepped out, they are out. And at least in that case you likely have the very best possible angle - and are likely looking right at it, as the player going down the sideline and whether he goes out or not is your primary focus, with everything else being watched peripherally.

If you're trying to imply, by this, that you can actually see whether that ball that looks like a completely legal snap to the other 5000 people in the stands did or did not rise a millimeter off the ground, then I would have 2 things for you. 1) Why are you looking RIGHT THERE - you've moved your focus from the other 10 things you're supposed to be watching at that moment... and 2) Please stand up and get your head off the ground, as that is the ONLY angle from which you could possibly be positive of your call.

All that said, however... that's not really my point. My point, really, is that I don't believe the rulesmakers EVER intended the officials to be differentiating between a snap that rolls and never leaves the ground and one that rises ever so minutely. There are several things that make a snap illegal. I truly don't believe that anyone EVER intended officials to cobble together the rules you've cobbled together to rule that a snap that for whatever reason (intent or just bad snap) does not actually leave the ground on it's way back to it's recipient is illegal ... while on that ever so infinitessimally does leave the ground is legal. (Nevermind that I don't buy the cobbling itself, don't believe that an official CAN (even if not doing his job correctly) make this determination, and don't believe that you SHOULD (while doing your job correctly) be looking at this nit to the expense of all the other far more important things you should be looking at.)

cmathews · #7 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 14, 2011, 02:21pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Completely different - I think even you would agree... but to keep with your point ... if I can SEE that they have stepped out, they are out. And at least in that case you likely have the very best possible angle - and are likely looking right at it, as the player going down the sideline and whether he goes out or not is your primary focus, with everything else being watched peripherally.

If you're trying to imply, by this, that you can actually see whether that ball that looks like a completely legal snap to the other 5000 people in the stands did or did not rise a millimeter off the ground, then I would have 2 things for you. 1) Why are you looking RIGHT THERE - you've moved your focus from the other 10 things you're supposed to be watching at that moment... and 2) Please stand up and get your head off the ground, as that is the ONLY angle from which you could possibly be positive of your call.

All that said, however... that's not really my point. My point, really, is that I don't believe the rulesmakers EVER intended the officials to be differentiating between a snap that rolls and never leaves the ground and one that rises ever so minutely. There are several things that make a snap illegal. I truly don't believe that anyone EVER intended officials to cobble together the rules you've cobbled together to rule that a snap that for whatever reason (intent or just bad snap) does not actually leave the ground on it's way back to it's recipient is illegal ... while on that ever so infinitessimally does leave the ground is legal. (Nevermind that I don't buy the cobbling itself, don't believe that an official CAN (even if not doing his job correctly) make this determination, and don't believe that you SHOULD (while doing your job correctly) be looking at this nit to the expense of all the other far more important things you should be looking at.)

I don't know what position you work, but evidently it isn't umpire. The umpire is supposed to make sure we have a legal snap, so, it would be his job to make sure that it met the requirements.
As to cobbling rules together, I really don't think that is the case. Define a snap and you get to pass, define pass and you get the ball traveling in flight. As to picking nits that it need to be a millimeter off of the ground, I disagree completely. It needs to be visibly "passed" in a shotgun type formation. The nit picker would try to make the millimeter of flight legal, in my mind if it isn't clearly "passed" or handed then it is illegal.

Robert Goodman · #8 (**permalink**) Thu Sep 15, 2011, 01:05am

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Against my better judgement ... what exactly are you disagreeing with me about, and how am I picking a nit at all... I'm saying let it go. The fact that the OP would be ruled illegal by some, but legal if the ball moved even a millimeter off the ground ... there's your nit.

But the same could be said about a snap that moves a mm backward, as opposed to one that doesn't. There was never specified a minimum distance backward the ball has to be snapped, so the determination must be made between something and nothing.

Canned Heat · #9 (**permalink**) Thu Sep 15, 2011, 09:01am

Posed two scenarios to our head football guy in WI at the WIAA....my question followed by his response.

If the center (A55) snapped the ball back and it went; a) went straight back along the ground, loose bouncing back to the QB (A12) without getting airborne at all.
Or
b) backward from LOS but still under the center, without being touched by any other A player.

The snap ends when the ball hits the ground and it becomes a loose ball. Since the snap from the center touched the ground, the snap ended and it is a fumble. If recovered by the offense they may continue the play. It would be a loose ball. Team A could recover the loose ball and advance, as could B.

If the snapper were to fail to release the ball, you'd have an illegal snap. But if he immediately releases the ball and it is loose, I would keep the ball live. So in both (a) and (b) scenarios presented below, live ball.

mbyron · #10 (**permalink**) Thu Sep 15, 2011, 09:39am

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