Fed: time between shift & motion

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by ajmc

"Beauty, is in the eye of the beholder", as is determining whether a player has shifted, or has gone in motion. NF 7-2-6 defines a "minimum of 0ne second" that "all 11 players of A shall come to an absolute stop and shall remain stationary" before the snap.

NF 7-2-7 explains that AFTER 7-2-6 has been satisfied (ALL 11 players have been still for at least 1 second) one player may go in motion and continue in motion at the snap.

No, 7-2-7 applies the 1 sec. requirement only "if he started from any position not clearly behind the line". There's nothing in the rule book saying there has to be any length of time between a shift and the start of motion under any circumstance other than that. Yet the case book does.

For instance, if you go by the rule book, A1 in the backfield could start in motion a mere fraction of a second after the entire team comes to a set formation from the huddle, stay in motion for 1 second at the end of which the ball is snapped, and the rule book would have nothing against that, but the case book would, at least according to what I've seen quoted. The rule on this has been the same for a very long time, and substantively the same in NCAA albeit with a different definition of "shift". So how long has this discrepancy with the case book existed?