# What's the process by which a coach accepts or declines a penalty? (American football) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** football-nfl\ **Created:** [September 27, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337 "2022-09-27T19:08:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/21 "2022-09-29T03:16:46Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > The Broncos lined up with only 10 men (open spot for him), which incurs a delay of game penalty. Wait, 10 men only is a penalty? I understand 12 men being flagged (one extra), but seems like there is no reason to penalize a team that’s somehow disadvantaging itself by being down one man. I recall the Cowboys offense running a play against the Vikings when Dallas had only 10 men on the field by mistake but there was no penalty. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/22 "2022-09-29T03:18:36Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Wait, 10 men only is a penalty? By itself, no, I don’t believe so. My guess is that they lined up with the empty position, and then did not snap the ball before the play clock reached 0, which would have been where the delay-of-game penalty came from. Edit: here’s the video of that play. You can see that they only had 10 men on the field, purposely not putting one of the wide receivers on the field (in honor of Demaryius Thomas), but their players never got into the set position, and never snapped the ball, and instead willingly taking the delay of game penalty when the play clock wound down. The penalty was _not_ for only having 10 players on the field. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-Xpka6HqRM8/maxresdefault.jpg "Broncos honor Demaryius Thomas with 10 man huddle vs. Detroit") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xpka6HqRM8) ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/23 "2022-09-29T04:27:55Z")
Yeah, the offense just stood around waiting for the clock to wind down. In general, though, there is an effective minimum for the offense. There needs to be 7 players (and no more than 7) on the line for a legal offensive formation prior to the snap. And the officials are supposed to check that the correct number of players are on the field before declaring the ball ready to play. And if there’s not, they generally signal somebody about it. Nobody’s interests are ultimately served by teams trotting out with 9 or 10 players, even if it’s not technically a penalty. That doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes. Clearly there are plenty of videos out there showing plays run with 10 or 12 players on one side and nobody noticed until way too late. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/24 "2022-09-29T19:48:24Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > There needs to be 7 players (and no more than 7) on the line for a legal offensive formation prior to the snap. No, at least in the NFL not sure about college, there can be more than 7 lined up on the line of scrimmage. Only the two on the ends are eligible receivers regardless of the number on the line ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/25 "2022-09-29T20:10:35Z")
Yup, that was not right. The rule in the NFL (and in college as far as I know) is at least 7 on the line for a valid formation. Effectively no more than 10, of course, since the ball’s got to be snapped somewhere. The genesis of this rule dates back over a century to when Teddy Roosevelt was President. Too many football deaths, so Roosevelt called for a meeting between college leaders to encourage them to find a way to make the game less dangerous. The eventual changes included banning certain formations, e.g. the flying wedge where players would link arms and form a wedge (a similar wedge formation was banned for kick returns more recently for both NFL and college) and requiring at least 6 offensive players on the line. So, rules to increase player safety have been part of the game more or less since the beginning, the belly-aching of many notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/26 "2022-09-29T22:27:44Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > The rule in the NFL (and in college as far as I know) is at least 7 on the line for a valid formation. Effectively no more than 10, of course, since the ball’s got to be snapped somewhere. Interesting question. Late in the game team has the ball on it’s own one yard line. They’re willing to take a safety and give up the two points to be able to kick the ball away from their twenty (with no rushing to block it). **Can** they line up 11 on the LOS with the intention of snapping the ball through the end zone? ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/27 "2022-09-29T22:33:40Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > **Can** they line up 11 on the LOS with the intention of snapping the ball through the end zone? I wouldn’t know why not. Your question, however, made me think of this play from 2005. Kansas State was in punt formation, but evidently the punter didn’t get the memo. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/BHTQS_k4XiQ/hqdefault.jpg "Kansas State's "Snap to No One"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTQS_k4XiQ) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/28 "2022-09-29T22:50:53Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > **Can** they line up 11 on the LOS with the intention of snapping the ball through the end zone? Yes. In practice I think they’d also like to run some time off the clock so they have someone handle the ball and run out. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/29 "2022-09-30T00:30:51Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > In the NFL, there are 4 flavors of offsides type penalties: I believe the term is “offside”. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337/30 "2022-09-30T01:00:11Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > **Can** they line up 11 on the LOS with the intention of snapping the ball through the end zone? Probably - but they’d want to have someone in the backfield in case something happened and the hike didn’t make it all the way through. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-process-by-which-a-coach-accepts-or-declines-a-penalty-american-football/972337.md?page=1)