lateral

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by ajmc

C'mon Robert, for 100+ years, most officials have had little, if any, problem deducing whether a handoff was forward, or backwards, using the current rule description. Once again, this doesn't seem like a situation that is at all broken.

That's not true, because the definition given by Fed (and similarly by NCAA) is a recent creation, nothing like 100 yrs. old (which is why I bolded your passage above). NCAA's interpret'n AR 7-1-6 even contradicts it because it's from a time before the current definition. NFL's definition differs from both of them.

Until recently, Fed didn't even have a definition for this, and NCAA in 7-1 referenced the relative positions of the players giving & getting the ball. If there wasn't a problem, why fix it? The former situation, while not ideal, was better than the current wording, which muddies the water.

Fed could clarify by specifying a body part as landmark. For instance, they could say the foremost point of the body exclusive of the upper extremities, so then it's all about where the hands & arms are in relationship to the rest of the body when the ball's released.