Re: Defering in the NFL

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> On 2003-11-13 [EMAIL PROTECTED] said:
> 
>    >I never said there was anything in the rules about a lateral,
>    >forward or backward. Someone else mentioned it and I replied. A lot
>    >of people believe that it is against the rules, to use an
>    >underhanded pass for a forward pass, even though it is perfectly
>    >legal. At least once year we all hear someone, usually a fan,
>    >shouting about a forward lateral, and how stupid, blind, unethical,
>    >ect. we are for not calling it.
> 
> Well, there was a time in Canadian football when a forward pass was legal
> only if thrown overhand, and then a longer period when a forward pass
> terminating behind the line of scrimmage had to be thrown overhand to be
> legal, but that was over half a century ago and probably not the source of
> fans' present confusion.  In general fans tend to get the idea that just
> because they haven't seen a type of play, or haven't seen it in a long time,
> a rule must've been made outlawing it, and that when someone does get away
> with it, they've swindled the opponent & hoodwinked the officials.  Maybe
> the influence of pro wrestling is at work there.


The head coach of the University of Chicago football team was also one 
of the directors of the intramural program. I was coaching a women's 
touch football team, and we did a play for an extra point where the QB 
rolled out and then pitched the ball forward to a lead blocker. The 
referee, a student, called this a "forward lateral" even thought he 
admitted she was behind the line when she threw it.

We won the game anyway, but I went to the IM director to make sure we'd 
have this ruled correctly in the playoffs. He insisted that it was only 
legal to throw the ball forward if it was done overhand, and he was an 
NCAA football head coach. 

--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
 and party every day.
 Then it was every other day. . . ."
      -Homer J. Simpson