Backward Pass...or not.

[Forksref]

Originally Posted by parepat

I can swear that I recently read (Reddings I think) that said in this situation blow dead as incomplete pass. The point is that the backwards throw was caused by the contact from B. Does this sound familiar. Based on my recent posts, I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

Then it would be a fumble (treated the same as a backward pass) if the contact caused ball to come loose.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by Reffing Rev.

Can you really say it contradicts the rule when the rules say both. How hard is this...

No contact: direction of pass determined by initial direction
Contact: direction of pass determined by movement of the arm at contact.

Good point. The appearance of a contradiction might be removed by distinguishing different cases or marking exceptions.

Still, you could avoid even the appearance of contradiction by simply defining the direction of the pass as the direction the arm starts to move. That's in fact what's doing all the work in the rule as it is.