Todd,
If a guy needs to get to the 30 for a first down, stretches the ball over the 30, before he is going down, someone knocks the ball loose, it is a fumble. Not at the end zone. If he crosses the plain of the goal line, someone knocks the ball loose, after it crossed the plain, but before the runner is considered down, it is a touchdown, where it should be a fumble. Like a receive, it should be a completion of the play.
When you were saying if a guy gets knocked back, no that is not what I meant. A runner cannot get knocked back out of an end zone, once he is in, he is in.
I have seen where the runner is at the corner, never sets foot in the end zone, but as he about to go out of bounds, reaches hi arm out, and it crosses the plain of the goal line. At no time did the runner or the ball ever really get in to the end zone.
The side lines, is different. Ball crossing the goal line is automatic TD and stop of play. Side lines catch, ball clearly caught by receiver on out of bounds side of the sidelines, but feet inbounds. Ball is not considered out of bounds, even thought it crossed the sideline plain.
I hope I explained it a little better. The side lines does not have a plain, as does the goal line, why.
Bill
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Norm Cash message to his pitchers, the day after one of his evenings on the town. "If you can hold em till the seventh, I'll be ready"
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