Probably an easy question but I realized I don’t know the answer. Is there a rule prohibiting a team from calling two timeouts in a row?
It is against the rules in the NFL at least.
Nope, happens constantly in an effort to “ice” kickers.
No it doesn’t. When you get two in a row, it’s generally the offense calling one to stop the clock and get their kicking team out on the field, followed by the defense calling a second timeout to ice the kicker. But a single team can’t call two time-outs in a row.
Was it ever legal to call back-to-back TO’s? I believe the rule change is fairly recent. BTW< I figured I wrong when I saw conflicting simulposts.
EDIT: Nevermind.
That’s what the punchline was in some dopey football comedy, I think the Replacements. Guy in huddle hurting/sucking wind: “How many timeouts do we have?” “Three.” “Can we take them all now?”
Okay, question answered. What made me wonder this was this week’s Jets’ win. It was overtime so the first score would win the game and the Lions had two timeouts. The Jets got within easy field goal range. I was thinking the Lions might try to throw Folk off by icing him two times in a row.
Heh, no, I’m pretty sure that’s an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty: 15 yards and an automatic first down.
Yep. So I guess that technically you can do it but it’s not worth it.
Huh? Mince’s post showed that it’s not allowed under NFL rules. But if it was allowed, why would it be unsportsmanlike conduct?
Uh, what? The name of the penalty is unsportsmanlike conduct. I wasn’t refuting Mince. I was trying to explain the real-world consequences, which had not yet been posted. You might have thought it was just a 5-yard penalty, for example, and then might think it worth it.
I’m so confused.
Maybe I misunderstood your post.
Are you saying that if NFL rules allowed a team to call two time outs in a row, it would be unsportsmanlike conduct for a team to do it when the other team is preparing to attempt a field goal?
I think what he means is that if you attempted to call two timeouts in a row, you would incur a penalty called “unsportsmanlike conduct” instead of being granted the second timeout.
If you have a player jumping up and down yelling “Time Out!” it’s unsafe to simply ignore him because the team can’t use a time out in that situation. So, you stop play, assess the penalty, and resume play.
Again, I appear to be missing the point. If a team is allowed to call a timeout, why would they be charged a penalty for doing it?
Or are you saying that a team would be penalized for trying to call a second timeout under the current rules where that’s not allowed?
The team is penalized for trying to call the time out. If memory serves it happened once to the Bills in the 90s during a game they were winning handily because they couldn’t get out of the huddle in time.
The second. Here’s the scenario - offense sets up for a field goal. Defense calls a timeout just before the ball snaps to throw the kicker off. That’s a perfectly legal & expected move.
After the timeout, the offense sets up for the field goal again. Right before the ball is snapped, the defense calls a timeout again. That will get the defense an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty - the offense moves 15 yards closer and has a first down and has a whole new set of options available to them - they don’t have to try the kick then if they think they’ve got enough time to go for a touchdown instead. That’s why you’d never call a 2nd timeout.
Joe Gibbs did exactly that a couple of years ago. The Skins were not granted the second T.O. and were penalized 15 for Unsportsmanlike Conduct. That moved the ball from just inside the kicker’s range to well within, he made it and the Redskins lost to the Bills 16 - 17.
Holding is “not allowed”, but it happens and there’s a penalty associated with it. Consecutive time-outs are “not allowed”, and if a player attempts to call one, it results in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
If anybody cares, in college football, at some point around 1990, for reasons known only to themselves and God, they changed the rule from not allowing to allowing consecutive time-outs.