Sort of, you're only allowed one forward pass during a single play (and that's generally done by the Quarterback) otherwise you are allowed to pass either laterally (or backward).
Lateral passing is very rare in American football and no I can't tell you why.
Its almost completely unheard of in Professional football and no, I still can't tell you why.
About the only time you see it is in College football (or Highschool).
I agree that the game would be more exciting (and probably higher scoring) with more lateral passing.
The reason you do not see lateral passes in professional play is probably because the skill level of the players is so high that the risk of interception becomes unacceptable. Also and somewhat counter-intuitively one reason the Pros are so good is that they are highly specialized. Novelties like lateral passes are things they haven't trained for.
A professional football player has a limited attention span, about eight to ten seconds. This in turn is the maximum length of a football 'play'. Reviving the lateral pass would lengthen plays beyond the players' capabilities, and result in situations where the players begin wandering the field aimlessly after that ten-second mark.
8 comments:
see, they can do it - why not all the time ?!
the number of times you see wide open spaces that any rugby team would exploit automatically
So a "lateral" is a "pass"?
Yeah here in the home of the All Blacks we would call this "basic ball handling skills".
And we do it without the body armour.
Sort of, you're only allowed one forward pass during a single play (and that's generally done by the Quarterback) otherwise you are allowed to pass either laterally (or backward).
Lateral passing is very rare in American football and no I can't tell you why.
Its almost completely unheard of in Professional football and no, I still can't tell you why.
About the only time you see it is in College football (or Highschool).
I agree that the game would be more exciting (and probably higher scoring) with more lateral passing.
thanks Mr Z, you've confirmed a long-held suspicion !
The reason you do not see lateral passes in professional play is probably because the skill level of the players is so high that the risk of interception becomes unacceptable.
Also and somewhat counter-intuitively one reason the Pros are so good is that they are highly specialized. Novelties like lateral passes are things they haven't trained for.
A professional football player has a limited attention span, about eight to ten seconds. This in turn is the maximum length of a football 'play'. Reviving the lateral pass would lengthen plays beyond the players' capabilities, and result in situations where the players begin wandering the field aimlessly after that ten-second mark.
Cheers
I had assumed it was because the Coach loses power when players are allowed to take initiative
it's quite clear the handling skills are good enough: wide receivers can pluck a ball off the ceiling
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