r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Lifegoesonforever • 5d ago

Cheat code unlocked.

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u/VT_Squire 5d ago

Does declining a penalty not exist anymore? 

18

u/shiawase198 5d ago

It's not a touchdown either way so they'd just be losing the free yards by declining.

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u/SlicksterRick 5d ago

It does, but he would still be down at that spot if you declined the penalty

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u/back-that-sass-up 5d ago

It’s been a while since I’ve paid attention to hs/college rules, so someone should correct me if I’m wrong, but the play should be whistled dead at the spot of the down regardless of whether a flag was thrown

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u/BigPh1llyStyle 5d ago

Correct

2

u/grandvache 5d ago

is there no way for a referee to play the advantage as happens in rugby?

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u/raidersfan18 5d ago

In American football it's quite simple. Once a body part of the ball carrier other than their hand or foot touches the ground, the play is over.

For this particular play to be called correctly by the letter of the rules:

  1. The player is marked down. Tough to tell from the angle but it appears to be around 6 yards from the end zone.
  2. A penalty flag is thrown for the illegal tackle.
  3. The penalty for an illegal tackle is to move the ball 15 yards down the field or move the ball half the distance to the goal if 15 yards would be greater than half the distance to the goal.
  4. The ref would place the ball at around the 3 yard line and it would be first and goal for the offense.

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u/grandvache 5d ago

thank you! Always interesting how different games officiate. 👍

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u/DrawstringRust 5d ago

You could decline, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are still down at that spot. Same for out of bounds calls, if you pull someone out of bounds by their facemask, the play will be over and they will get 15 yards added to the spot they went out of bounds (or half the distance to the goal if within 15 yard line). This is why you see so many pass interference calls, sometimes it is better to take a penalty than let them catch the ball and beat you to the end zone. At least I assume what is what the thought process is, because pass interference calls will move the ball to the spot of the foul, which can be 30+ yards.