bbeagle, I have no idea why you're choosing to think of these plays in this fashion but it serves no purpose.
All plays are changed when a foul is committed. The official throwing the flag does not change the play. The player committing the foul changes the play.
A foul is a foul. I understand that. Our throwing a flag is BECAUSE a foul happened on the field.
However, our throwing a flag DOES change the play.I have always thought that as a play transpired, we threw our flags for fouls. If the team decided they wanted the play without help from our penalty, they could simply decline our flags and take the play as it is. This is NOT TRUE.
In some cases, a team may NOT just decline our penalties and take the play as it occurred.An incomplete forward pass results in a succeeding spot of the previous spot. Just by throwing our flag for intentional grounding, we have changed what the succeeding spot is. It's a JUDGEMENT call on our part that there are no receivers in the area. Declining our 'penalty' has no bearing on the succeeding spot. Just throwing our flag changed the succeeding spot regardless of accepting or declining the penalty.
On something like a holding call, declining the penalty results in the play exactly the same as it was before -as if we never threw a flag. The succeeding spot is a result of the PLAY, not the flag thrown.
I will call the game according to the rules, because that is what I am paid to do, and I will defend the rule book on the field, and my personal opinions do not take place on the field, but it's just an oddity that I'm pointing out off the field.