When the Rule and AR Conflict

[Legacy Zebra]

Free Kick, A-35

Kicker A11 punts the ball on a kickoff or otherwise kicks the ball illegally or kicks the ball from outside the hashes. Live ball or dead ball foul? Depends on where you look. 6-1-2-a lists all of these as a live ball foul (penalty statement after paragraph c that includes a-c). However AR 6-2-1-I and 2019 CFO bulletin 2 say that this is a dead ball foul. Nowhere in Rule 6 is this supported as a dead ball foul. Things that make you go hmmm.

[ajv]

The editing change for the 2013-4 rule book tagged the first paragraph as (a), added (b), and moved the original items under (c). Prior to that, it was only the (c) items (the original a-g) that were covered by the live-ball penalty statement. The original paragraph, now item (a), didn't really have a penalty statement. The AR never changed. Hmmm.

[Kalle]

Rules 2-16-1-b and 4-1-1 take care of this (the action is a foul and the ball stays dead). But it would be sensible to include a separate dead-ball penalty statement for 6-1-2-a.

[Kalle]

Hmm, now that I took another look at 6-1-2, the first penalty statement does include a), which it really shouldn't (I think all infractions of a) cause the ball to remain dead). Maybe this needs to be pointed out to the rules editor?

[Legacy Zebra]

That’s kind of the point I was getting at. We have a rule that says the ball becomes live when out in play legally,, but the penalty for not putting the ball in play legally is listed as a live ball foul. So you get to the AR and it says that this is a dead ball foul, but there’s no penalty statement anywhere in the rule itself (2-16, 4-1, or 6-1) that says anything about a dead ball foul.

So something needs to be rewritten. Apparently they want this to be a dead ball foul because of the bulletin last year reaffirming the AR, so I would guess they need to rewrite the penalty statements in 6-1-2.

[dvasques]

Maybe I should opend a different post for this but since we're talking about things to try and get to the rules editor to fix.

AR 9-1-4-III should we have the rulling of a) to say 15 yards at the end of the run? Seems like the AR is talking about the foul happening during the kick, which would have enforcement from the previous spot, right?

Again, sorry if this should not be in this thread. Maybe we should open one with this kinds of issues to compile and try to get to SS

[Legacy Zebra]

It could definitely be clearer as to the timing of the foul. It also needs to amend part b of that AR since it explicitly calls it a blindside block but then says no foul. That AR was in there when there was no such thing as a BSB foul and probably just got overlooked when the foul was added.

[dvasques]

Oh, that's from 2019 rulebook and I'm not even sure it's an up to date book but yeah... it should say foul. IFAF book has that part right but not the a) timing of the foul though.