simultaneous possession by teammates

[Robert Goodman]

What I'm writing about here is not a problem for Fed. However, NFL, NCAA, CFL, and Football Canada rule books all refer in at least one place each to "the runner" or "the ball carrier", even though NCAA in its definition of "runner" certainly admits of there being more than one at the same time (because you can fake your ball and eat it too). All the codes have provisions or interpret'ns to handle cases of simultaneous possession by players of opposing teams. What I'd like to know is, other than in Fed (where it doesn't matter because they wrote carefully enough to avoid this problem, a legacy of their era of good technical writing), how do you handle cases where players of the same team gain possession simultaneously of a ball, in terms of provisions that make the ball dead under certain conditions of "the" runner or ball carrier, or other rulings that seem to be for only one player in possession of a live ball? Do you try to judge who has better possession? Do you give the benefit of doubt to the opposing team, for instance making the ball dead if it would be if either of the players is "the runner"? Or something else?

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

What I'm writing about here is not a problem for Fed. However, NFL, NCAA, CFL, and Football Canada rule books all refer in at least one place each to "the runner" or "the ball carrier", even though NCAA in its definition of "runner" certainly admits of there being more than one at the same time (because you can fake your ball and eat it too). All the codes have provisions or interpret'ns to handle cases of simultaneous possession by players of opposing teams. What I'd like to know is, other than in Fed (where it doesn't matter because they wrote carefully enough to avoid this problem, a legacy of their era of good technical writing), how do you handle cases where players of the same team gain possession simultaneously of a ball, in terms of provisions that make the ball dead under certain conditions of "the" runner or ball carrier, or other rulings that seem to be for only one player in possession of a live ball? Do you try to judge who has better possession? Do you give the benefit of doubt to the opposing team, for instance making the ball dead if it would be if either of the players is "the runner"? Or something else?

To answer your questions, each player can cause the play to be dead, no, yes, and does not apply.