It's not comparable. Special teams have trick plays out of those formations. If a defense recognizes it they have the right to call a timeout. So since you can't call timeout while playing on defense in the NBA should defenses in the NFL also not be able to call timeout?
No it was no doubt before the snap. TV replays have showed that. People just have a problem that a timeout can be called a second before the ball is snapped.
Exactly. It's black and white in football. It's just a matter of if the coach can time it right before the snap.
This whole thing is confusing. But why do you have a problem with coaches calling timeout before the kick?
I was just using that as an example of the specification of when you can call a timeout. It's not unprecedented to make it very specific in sports. You don't have to, but I think it would improve the game. I understand not wanting to change it, Id just like it more if they'd be able to just line up and kick the damn thing. But oh well.
I don't like the wildcat formation, I just want them to lineup in pro formations and play damn pro football offense. Same thing, you're taking options away from the football team. It's not only who has the best talent, but who are the best prepared teams.
I think its a cheap tactic that's more aggravating than it is useful. That said, I thought that a timeout could be called anytime before the kick (it appears that timeout was called with the ball already in the kickers hands yesterday, but I guess I was wrong). I don't like that. If there is a little more breathing room, I'm OK with it.
I don't mind it. Sure, it gets kind of annoying especially whenever it's done at the absolute LAST possible moment (in most cases literally as the ball is about to be snapped), but it makes these do-or-die situations in football all the more suspenseful. Besides, football is a man's sport and the kicker is usually the biggest wimp out there. If he's not out there to make plays or hit some bodies, I expect him at the very least to be able to withstand the mental and emotional stress during pressure cooker situations.
The problem is that the coach will have an official with him on the sideline. Its always called before the snap, but its hard to hear the official's whistle from the sideline in a loud stadium. So when the official starts running towards the field to kill the play, nobody notices and snaps the ball and then everyone realizes that there is no play.
I always thought icing the kicker was considered "standard procedure" in games that came down to the line like that. I guess not, but I'd still be okay with it regardless of how it turned out. As many people have already stated numerous times, it works both ways, not just one. It's a strategy, just like any other strategy in the NFL, that can sometimes work and sometimes not work. No big deal about it. Shanahan popularizing it a few years ago only makes it a humorous coincidence, not "pay-back" or "revenge." For it to be pay-back or revenge there would have to have been something done wrong in the first place. It's a sound tactic in my belief. In theory, giving a kicker two chances instead of one would normally heighten their chance at making it, especially from a sizeable distance. A FG is not a 50/50 shot--there are many variables at play. A kicker can readjust himself for the second kick, take into account the shift in winds, get a better snap than last time, or perhaps even simply try to recreate the first kick if it went well. Icing is a totally psychological tactic that doesn't alter the physical reality of the game at hand. If we're going to outlaw that, why don't we outlaw trash-talking, fake signals/audibles, and all of the other aspects of the game that require psychology?
Praise Breesus that Mike Singletary didn't have a timeout to ice Garrett Hartley tonight! My blood pressure tells me that I could not watch him try that damn kick twice.
am i the only one completely shocked by people not being able to understand that a timeout is being called BEFORE the play ever happened? Seems like a very simple concept that people are conveniently ignoring either due to unwillingness to see reality because it ruins their argument...or they just arent very smart.
Yeah, I am not understanding this. People are saying that the kicker has already kicked the ball when you call the timeout. You cannot call a timeout in the middle of a play. its pretty simple
