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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4499736, member: 289"] ‘Jordan’ on Orange Nation said that Franco Harris’ “immaculate reception” 50 years ago this week should not have counted because, under the rules at the time “the ball was dead once it touched a defensive player”. Here’s the Wikipedia article on the subject: [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Reception#cite_note-13"]Immaculate Reception - Wikipedia[/URL] The key passage: “After the play, a critical question remained: who did the football touch in the Fuqua/Tatum collision? If it bounced off Fuqua without ever touching Tatum, then Harris's reception was illegal. If the ball bounced off only Tatum, or if it bounced off both Fuqua and Tatum (in any order), then the reception was legal. The rule stated in the pertinent part that if an offensive player touches a pass first, he is the only offensive player eligible to catch the pass. "However, if a [defensive] player touches [the] pass first, or simultaneously with or subsequent to its having been touched by only one [offensive] player, then all [offensive] players become and remain eligible" to catch the pass.[13][14] (This rule was rescinded in 1978.)” Footnote #13 reads: "Rule 7, Section 5, Article 2, Item 1". Official Rules for Professional Football. The National Football League. 1971. pp. 44–45.” I googled that section and it doesn’t exist anymore. I settled for Rule, which declares when the ball is dead. On item said “when the pass is incomplete and referred me to this section: [URL unfurl="true"]https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/2022-nfl-rulebook/#article-4-incomplete-pass[/URL] The key section: “ARTICLE 5. ELIGIBLE RECEIVERS The following players are eligible to catch a forward pass that is thrown from behind the line of scrimmage. Defensive players. Offensive players who are on either end of the line, provided they either have the numbers of eligible players (1–49 and 80–89) or have legally reported to play a position on the end of the line. See 5-1-2. Offensive players who are legally at least one yard behind the line at the snap, provided they either have the numbers of eligible players (1–49 and 80–89) or have legally reported to play a position in the backfield. All other offensive players after the ball has been touched by any defensive player or any eligible offensive player.” So the rule was never that hitting a defensive player caused the ball to be dead, either before or after 1978 [MEDIA=youtube]dHIXFKrrUhA[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]

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