I need an officials ruliing

**Omnibus** · October 13th, 2007, 11:21 AM

I have a question for all you officials out there.

Is it possible to decline a dead ball penalty (for example illegal procedure motion prior to the snap by the offensive team)?

**imported_Counts** · October 13th, 2007, 11:23 AM

Good question.....but I am not sure why you would want to since the play would be replayed

**imported_biggamesjames** · October 13th, 2007, 11:43 AM

I guess you could if you really wanted to but I can't think of any scenario that it would be beneficial since it would be a dead ball and blown dead so there would be no play. You would just be giving away a free 5 yards.

**aoa_stripes** · October 13th, 2007, 11:49 AM

Only way I see it being beneficial is so that the other team would have more angle on their field goal because it was so close.

**pvfan** · October 13th, 2007, 12:35 PM

Punting, if some team takes dealy so they have more room to punt in order not to punt it into the endzone.

**imported_VHSLhelper** · October 13th, 2007, 01:05 PM

I always thought a team had the option to accept or decline any penalty. Any exceptions??

**imported_UKCats1** · October 13th, 2007, 01:22 PM

You can decline the distance penalty for any foul so the answer to the question is yes you can decline a dead ball foul however that does not change the down since the play did not actually start. Lets say that you have a fourth and 10 and the offense has a false start. You can decline the yardage. The only time that I have seen this is when a team is punting and they want a little more room to put a team deep in their own territory.

VHSLhelper there is only one situation that I can think of off hand that would have a penalty automatically declined and that is when a team intercepts or recovers a fumble for a TD. If the team that fumbles or throws the interception fouls before the turnover the foul is automatically declined because the result of the play is a Touchdown.