No, that’s Tantric sex. 
That was Don Beebe, not Steve Tasker, but it was indeed against Buffalo. IIRC, he pushed Lett out of bounds at the 1, and the 'Boys scored the TD on the next play anyway.
I think the “fumblerooski” play was outlawed because the PLAY looked stupid and artificial - that’s a pretty common reason for a lot of sports rules. I only remember it being used once, I know it was by Nebraska about 15 years ago.
True. Don’t know exactly where Satan got this from. But in my youth, when I was living in Montreal, I seem to recall several French speaking commentators calling it a rouge. As to its origin, I haven’t got a clue
Since this thread seems to still be alive and well, let me ask another question. (And, no, I don’t want to hunt for the answer in the online rules; the discussion is much more fun as people chime in from all over, don’t you agree? Smilin’ face goes here.)
What’s the deal with signal-calling and the snap? In fact, what is a snap? I mean, technically.
If the ball is inches away from a first down or the goal line, can the center “keep” the ball and dive over the line himself? What if he slaps it in the QB’s palms but the QB never takes the ball; then can the center dive over the line? Or, can the center snap it to the guard, who “does the dive”?
Also, does it matter who says “hike” (or whatever)? In fact, must there be any signal-calling at all? (Don’t they beat a big, earth-shaking bass-drum at Galladett (sp?) College, the school for deaf kids, instead of calling “signals”?)
One of the links in this thread (about a recent quick kick performed by the Seahawks) mentioned “the required two second pause” in the signal count. Huh? What were they talking about.
Questions, questions, questions… I have so many questions!
The ball was stripped and then rolled all the way through the endzone and out the back. By rule, Buffalo got possesion on the 20. The Cowboys most certainly did not score on the next play.
There are formation in which the center is eligible, but they are so different from most normal formations that the defense would be able to tell what you were up to. “Why not use a center eligible formation as a decoy then?” you might ask. Because in center eligible formations the defense has pretty much a free pass into the backfield. Someone will explain this in greater detail I’m sure.
While we’re delving into Gridiron arcana, can someone explaing uniform numbers. I believe certain positions require players to have numbers in certain ranges, like all offensive backs are 1-20, receivers are 60-80, or whatever. What are the official ranges for what positions? This makes it clear who is allowed to receive a handoff, lateral, or catch a pass, as well as where people have to line up and who can be in motion, right?
And, when someone is playing a position that doesn’t match their number, they have to tell the officials, right? Is this true for the “lineman eligable” play, or whatever it is called? I think in certain formations, if a lineman isn’t lined up on the line of scrimage he becomes an eligable receiver. What are the rules for that and does he have to tell the ref beforehand? It would seem to spoil the surprise.
As mentioned earlier, the fumblerooski was outlawed because it is nearly impossible to defend and the NFL and the NCAA frown upon giving teams chances to score uncontested touchdowns. It’s not particularly competitive. If you had the fumblerooski in the game, you might as well make everybody an eligible receiver along with it.
As for enforcing it, it’s quite simple. If an official sees the play being called, he throws a flag and calls the team for a penalty and nullifies the play. I don’t know exactly what the penalty is. I would assume it’s a 15-yard penalty of some type. In football terms, it’s called a “palpably unfair act.” Other such things include having a guy come off the bench to tackle someone.
You can’t run “sleeper” plays anymore either. Sometimes teams would bring 10 guys up to the line and have an eleventh guy stand just inside the sideline, but shielded by other players. Then a pass would be thrown to him because presumably, nobody knew he was in the game. To remedy this, all players on offense are required to lineup at least 5 yards from the sidelines I believe.
When the fumblerooski was legal in college football, teams were required to inform the officials before the game that they planned to run it at some point. That way the officials would know not to blow the whistle too early.
It’s best to let the offensive lineman do what they are supposed to do: block.
In the NFL, QBs and kickers get 1-19. I believe each team can give one receiver a number in this range (e.g. Keyshawn Johnson.)
20-49 are reserved for running backs and defensive backs
50-59 are for centers and linebackers
60-79 are for guards and tackles on offense and defensive tackles
80-89 are for wide receivers, tight ends, and defensive ends
90-99 are for defensive ends and linebackers.
(This is from memory, there may be some slight variations and you can ask for exceptions.)
In the NFL, if you have an ineligible number (50-79), you have to report to the official to tell him that you are lining up in an eligible position. If you don’t, it’s a penalty.
In college and high school football, if you are wearing 50-79, you can never line up as an eligible receiver even if you wear a big sign on your head saying that you are eligible. It’s automatically a penalty.
In the CFL, players wear all sorts of numbers and I think it looks really stupid to see receievers wearing numbers like 75.
In American football, the five interior lineman cannot catch a pass (with the NFL exception of reporting in) or take a handoff or lateral directly from the QB. You could lateral to an interior lineman if he is the SECOND person to handle the ball after the QB.
That would be a very weird play however and most likely ineffective.
Usually in the NFL when there is an eligible lineman, he is brought in as a fullback or extra tight end in a short yardage situation.
A frequent penalty you will see will be for an illegal formation. Sometimes the two wide outs, one of whom is supposed to be on the line, will step back and then the tackle will be in an eligible receiver position. If that guy didn’t say he was eligible or there are six guys on the line, it’s a penalty. You can tell when this is going to be called by watching the two linesmen. The officials on each side of the line will hold out an arm to indicate that the wideout on his side of the line isn’t on the line of scrimmage. If the official on the other side is doing the same, then both wideouts are off the line.
There is no excuse for this penalty as it is SOP for a wideout to ask the official if he is lined up correctly.
Intentionally fumbling, or intentionally failing to recover a fumble, both mock the game and deserve to be outlawed along with any of the other mockeries mentioned in this thread, IMHO. The Nebraska “fumblerooski” is an example of the former, and the NFL’s “Dave Casper Rule” is a response to the latter. That’s the one that prevents any offensive player other than the one who fumbled the ball in the first place from advancing it after the 2 minute warning. That stems from the time the Raiders won a game at the end by batting a fumbled ball to each other along the ground across the goal line, then covering it up for the TD.
I’m not well up on football rules and I’ve enjoyed this informative post, but I’m still confused on one or two points. I thought that anyone lining up a certain distance from the line, either towards the sidelines or back would be eligible. But I don’t know the distance that person must line up off the line. If this be true, what is that distance? And if it is true, why do you have to inform an official. And how does one wide end stepping back make an otherwise ineligible tackle eligible? Is there a limit on eligible receivers? And if the tackle was not the required distance (if there is one) from the line, how would he be eligible?
You have to seven players on the line of scrimmage. The two players at either end are eligible receivers. They can line up anywhere along the line of scrimmage, as long as they aren’t trying to hide among their teammates close to the sideline.
The four players in the backfield are all eligible receivers (with the exception of the NFL where the QB isn’t eligible unless he is in the shotgun formation.) You stand anywhere you want to in the backfield.
So, in theory, there are six eligible receivers, but there are never more than five out at once because somebody has to throw the ball and you can’t give the ball to a lineman and tell him to throw it.
As for the illegal formation, I will attempt a crude drawing.
Here is a formation.
S T G C G T E
Q F
B
R
The eligible receivers are S (split end), E (tight end), F (flanker), B (fullback), and R (tailback).
Sometimes the guy in the S position, the split end will forget to stand on the line.
Like this
T G C G T E
S Q F
B
R
Or they screw up like this
S E T G C G T
Q F
B
R
(upon previewing this, I realized that the spacing is all wrong and I can’t figure out how to make this work)
In the first situation, it’s an illegal formation because there are only six guys on the line. In the second, it’s going to be a problem because they guy at the right end of the line of scrimmage is a tackle, who isn’t an eligible receiver and the tight end might try to go out on a pass pattern and he’s ineligible because he’s in an ineligible position on the line.
Confused. That’s the beauty of football’s rules. They are incredibly arcane.
S T G C G T E
Q F
B
H
This formation is legal
S=split end, T=tackle, G=guard, C=Center, E=Tight End, F=Flanker, B=Fullback, H=halfback
T G C G T E
S Q F
B
H
This formation is illegal because there are only six guys on the line.
T G C G T E F
S Q
B
H
The last formation (despite my not being able to get the QB to line up under the center) is illegal because the flanker is on the line and he is “Covering” the tight end, making him ineligible. The tackle on the left side is in an eligible receiver position, but most likely not eligible to receive a pass because he has the wrong kind of number or he didn’t report to the official as being eligible.
A question and a comment:
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Why didn’t you start this thread?
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If your SO isn’t as…enamored of the game as you are, Lord have mercy on her soul Sunday afternoons!
I remember Burt R calling a trick play in the Longest Yard which involved either the end or the tackle stepping back from the line of scrimmage making him (or the other one) an eligable receiver.
Anyone remember exactly who did what?
Actually, I’m a much bigger baseball fan. I just got carried away with this thread. I only watch college football. I live in L.A., there’s no reason to watch football on Sunday.
I do cover a lot of high school football so I’ve talked to officials and learned all sorts of stuff about the rules, which makes the game more interesting to me because I can understand it better.
I got a little carried away with the diagrams there, but I really wanted to figure out how to set them up in HTML more than anything else.
earlier this season, on Friday night football, missed field goals were returned for touchdowns in two separate games - each of the receivers ran something like 125-130 yards, taking into account the 110 yard field and the spot in the end-zone where they caught. (I think one game the touchdown was against the Bombers; can’t remember the teams in the other.)
In any event, very exciting to watch, even on tv.