You Be The Ref! Part 2 – The Answers

You've read the scenarios. You've formulated your responses. Now it's time to check just how right you were. Here are the correct actions.

1) Quarterback A1 pitches the ball forward with his arm and ball clearly beyond the line of scrimmage before the ball is released. A1’s feet are behind the line of scrimmage when the ball is released. Is this forward pass legal or illegal?

The forward pass is legal, and the ball remains live. Team A’s pass is legal as long as both feet of the passer are on his/her side of the line of scrimmage when the ball is released (rule 7.5.1).

2) What's the ruling? During a successful try for point after a touchdown, rusher B7 is flagged for a personal foul/unnecessary roughness (bull rush), and blocker A6 is flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct foul for screaming expletives at the rusher repeatedly during the play.

Live ball fouls do not combine with unsportsmanlike conduct fouls to create a double foul (rule 10.2.1). B7’s personal foul for unnecessary roughness will carry over to the start of the next possession, since it is a foul that carries a penalty of 10 yards by team B during a successful try (rule 8.3.7.b). A6’s unsportsmanlike conduct foul is enforced from the succeeding spot (like it was a dead ball foul), even though the foul happened while the ball was live (rule 10.3.5.a). B7’s personal foul is enforced first (because it occurred first) – half the distance to the goal from the 15-yard line (to the 7.5-yard line), and then A6’s unsportsmanlike conduct foul is enforced 10 yards from that spot, resulting in the drive starting 1st & 10 from the 17.5-yard line.

3) B3, defending against a legal forward pass beyond the neutral zone, has his back to the ball and is waving his arms in the face of A8, but does not make contact. Is this defensive pass interfence? 

In this play, there is no foul for defensive pass interference. There can be no foul for pass interference if there is no contact (rule 7.5.7).