Any part of the sideline white line is out of bounds and to merely touch the white, however slight, means you are out of bounds. The pylon at the goal line is entirely aligned with the sideline, but when a player touches any part of the pylon with the ball it is not considered out of bounds but a TD. Yet if a receiver’s toe barely touches the endzone sidelines behind the pylon, he is considered out of bounds. This inconsistency has had me baffled for years.
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I think the ball has to touch the INSIDE of the pylon to be considered a TD .
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Au contrair, mon ami. If the ball touches the front of the pylon it has always been ruled a TD, even the outside corner has been deemed a TD. I wonder if a toe of a WR touches the inside of the Pylon that would be considered out of bounds as it would if it touched the white of the sidelines on either side of the pylon.
I feel like years ago, something was a TD or wasn’t. There was no stretching the ball out and such. It seems like now everything is a technicality.
Am I wrong to think that, or was it always the case?
Either way, it gives the TV crews something to do and the announcers something to talk about and delay the games…to wit, the ESPN types are always griping about how long the games are…>Duh !!
Hmmm… maybe a ball vs. toe thing. The ball can be over the sideline / end line as long as no part of the player is out of bounds. And if the ball touches the pylon at any point it has necessarily crossed the plane of the goal line. So if the rest of the player hasn’t been out of bounds, and the ball hits the pylon, it has crossed the plane with player in bounds = TD. I’m kinda winging this…
(Edit: guess this is same thing you are saying above)
it’s a physics thing, think of the leading edge of the pylon and goal line as a plane with an infinite extension upward.
in order for a ball to touch the inside edge of the pylon it must break the goal line plane….Touchdown
if it passes over the pylon at a diagonal it must also break the goal line plane even if that means it simultaneously breaks the out of bounds plane ….the tie goes to the runner so to speak
if it touches the front end of the pylon it should be out of bounds having crossed the out of bounds plane first.
This is the correct answer, 88. The overriding factor is that the goal line is considered to have been crossed first
I thought the pylon was three sides in bounds. But when I look its oob
I don’t believe there is an out of bounds plane, though. If the ball touches the front of the pylon, as long as player is in bounds it should be a touchdown. We need to think of the goal line plane not only extending upward infinitely, but to each side as well, as far as the ball is concerned (as long as player in bounds). I think a player could stand on the one foot line, reach the ball sideways over sideline, bring the ball around and touch the outside edge of the pylon, over out of bounds, and it would be a td, because the ball crossed the extended (sideways) goal line plane while player was in bounds.
In theory, I guess you could touch the pylon without actually breaking the plane because you’re out of bounds. It would very rarely happen though and almost would have to be done intentionally.
It’s a locked in clear evidence of the plane other than that though. Compare it to the struggle of knowing if someone breaking the plane inside the pylons. How often have officials got that wrong or were just unable to tell?
Here you go rookie.
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