Failure to wear required equipment. ;)

http://images.codingforcharity.org/d...225307_reg.png

Given that this is exactly the type of play used in clinics when discussing this rule, I humbly beg to differ with you.

I can't stream the video with my software, so I need to ask based on the discussion, is this a play wherein players bark either before or after the ball is put in play? If so, a question for those who consider it tending to make a travesty of the game: Do you count it as tending toward travesty because it distracts people from the play of the game? Or do you count it as that for some other reason?

Now, for those who consider it unsportsmanlike conduct: Do you consider it so because you think it's an unfair means of getting opponents to laugh, and hence distract them? Or do you consider it so because any sort of performance other than the play of the game itself is unsportsmanlike? If it's for the first reason, do you think there are any allowable means of trying to get opponents to laugh, and hence distract them? Would you allow tickling?

Robert, imagine the play this way.

Standard PAT set up, before the snap, the holder starts a monkey crawl in motion towards the sideline.

The ball is then snapped to the kicker, who throws a scoring pass.

It's not about making anyone laugh. It's about engaging in absurdity to distract from the game at hand in order to utilize that distraction for an advantage.

Similar to a "barking dog" play in basketball, where a player will get down on "all fours" and bark. While everyone looks at him, the team throws a pass to another player who is wide open due to the distraction.

Robert, you sometimes bring up some insightful points.

Then there's this.

Looking injured? Or just acting funny?

Huh. To me those don't seem materially different than calling out funny signals in preparation for the snap, or to distract a batter in baseball, a golfer in golf, or a shooter in pool or tennis. Of course it's to create distraction, but it doesn't seem much different from all the other ways you'd try to distract an opponent.

It's be different if it were feigning injury.

So are you ok with the "wrong ball" play?

Hence the wonderful Ignore function on the control panel.

He was feigning mental injury.

COMMENT: Football has been and
always will be a game of deception and trickery involving multiple shifts, unusual
formations and creative plays. However, actions or verbiage designed to confuse
the defense into believing there is problem and a snap isn’t imminent is
beyond the scope of sportsmanship and is illegal.


I still say this play falls under 9-9-1 and is a USC!!

His coach wasn't feigning, though.

No, because in such cases it's not clear to the other team that a distraction is intended.

And I suppose you never resorted to tickling in the "Whose ball?" drill. Or in wrestling, for that matter?