According to the NFL rules here, and i quote
Now fair enough it means the QB cant pretend like he has the ball or anything. But wouldn’t this rule make hard counts and the use of cadence illegal? After all yelling HUT seems to be a pretty obvious attempt at drawing the defence offsides. Anybody know if refs are just told to ignore the QBs snap count?
Moved from General Questions to the Game Room.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator
Hard counts and other timing tricks like that are not necessarily designed to draw an opponent off-sides. They’re designed to keep a defense “off-balance” and keep defenders from getting a jump on the offensive line. So, the problem line is “obvious attempt to draw an opponent offside.”
The QB is only cited for doing things that make it look like the ball HAS been snapped. Even then the official has to make a judgment call like whether the QB pulling away meant to draw the opposition or whether he was just in motion to reset his position. P Manning does so much motion behind the center that he can really take advantage of quick snaps when he needs to.
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Huts and head moves that are associated with vocalizing occur BEFORE the ball is snapped.
All QBs will try to do things that skirt as close to this line as possible.
Plus there it is just not practical to have an official jude hard counts as being deceptive or not.
Ok thanks for that. Sorry about the ol’ posting in the wrong forum.
Not being from the States the basic things about football that I guess ye grow up with are lost on use foreigners. Speaking of the snap count though… why HUT? Did i miss a page on the history of football where it was played in small wooden shacks? Maybe thats why it split from rugby.