A sports junkies caller blew my mind this morning about a loophole in the you cant throw a challenge flag on an automatic reviewable play

[Spear]

There's no loophole. The play CAN be reviewed, it's just that the review can't benefit the penalized team. So, throwing a challenge flag to prevent the other team from benefiting from a review won't work. They'll get the review plus the 15 yard penalty and you will look like a fool for trying to exploit a loophole that doesn't exist.

The rule is dumb on its own merit. It doesn't need a fictitious loophole to make it garbage. End thread.

[greenspandan]

Yeah, we get it. But this example was pretty terrible.

Santana scores a TD but doesn't get both feet down. Why would Shanahan challenge it?

you don't get it. by throwing the challenge flag, he can PREVENT the automatic review, which would likely overturn the touchdown, by taking the penalty and making the play "unreviewable".

[Kindred]

I thought what they said was the team that threw the flag could not benefit from it in any way.

There's no loophole. The play CAN be reviewed, it's just that the review can't benefit the penalized team. So, throwing a challenge flag to prevent the other team from benefiting from a review won't work. They'll get the review plus the 15 yard penalty and you will look like a fool for trying to exploit a loophole that doesn't exist.

The rule is dumb on its own merit. It doesn't need a fictitious loophole to make it garbage. End thread.

Yep thats what I thought.

[Morpheus'skins]

you don't get it. by throwing the challenge flag, he can PREVENT the automatic review, which would likely overturn the touchdown, by taking the penalty and making the play "unreviewable".

Seriously guys???? What is he going to challenge? The refs are not stupid... What would likely happen is that the refs would tell Shanahan that there is nothing for him to challenge and have him pick up the flag. (They may even penalize him...) I doubt that they would enforce the penalty and make the play non-reviewable. The only advantage would be to the opposing team as the booth has now had more time to look at the replay.

[MDTERPS27]

I like this idea but I'm pretty sure it would not work. The rule is that the team that illegally throws the challenge flag cannot benefit from a review.... The Skins wouldn't be befitting from a review here... They would overturn the touchdown, move us back 15 (or possibly 35) yards and probably eject Santana Moss.

[Laxpunk2006]

There's no loophole. The play CAN be reviewed, it's just that the review can't benefit the penalized team. So, throwing a challenge flag to prevent the other team from benefiting from a review won't work. They'll get the review plus the 15 yard penalty and you will look like a fool for trying to exploit a loophole that doesn't exist.

The rule is dumb on its own merit. It doesn't need a fictitious loophole to make it garbage. End thread.

It's This ^ guys.

This has been spoken about at length in the media so I'm surprised so many think this "loophole" exists. The rule is that the penalized team cannot benefit from a challenge, not that they cannot be a challenge.

There is no loophole, it's just a stupid rule.

[KingGibbs]

Hey you guys. Did you hear about this new game system they are coming out with? I think it's called Atari. Word is their game Pong is going to revolutionize video gaming.

[greenspandan]

Seriously guys???? What is he going to challenge? The refs are not stupid... What would likely happen is that the refs would tell Shanahan that there is nothing for him to challenge and have him pick up the flag. (They may even penalize him...) I doubt that they would enforce the penalty and make the play non-reviewable. The only advantage would be to the opposing team as the booth has now had more time to look at the replay.

the refs might do that, but they'd be breaking the official NFL rules. that's why it's called a loophole -- it doesn't make sense, but that's the letter of the law. If shannahan says he wants to challenge the play, it is, according to the rules, 1) a dead-ball penalty on the redskins (previous play counts) and 2) the touchdown is no longer booth-reviewable. that's how the rule is written. it's really stupid, and that's the point we're making.

[Spear]

This thread should be locked. It's just misinformation and the title is a mess.

The lesson here is that listening to sports talk radio often results in a lesser understanding of sports, rather than a greater one.

[thecardiacrll]

This thread should be locked. It's just misinformation and the title is a mess.

The lesson here is that listening to sports talk radio often results in a lesser understanding of sports, rather than a greater one.

Please explain to me the misinformation? Thats how the rule is written the NFL messed up on this rule? And how is the title a mess?

[wrecker]

What if Shanahan had a legitimate reason for not wanting the TD......say because there was too much time left on the clock for the other team to possibly score.
He feels confident we can run more time off the clock and still score a TD?

Ha ha ha! Bizzaro Land!

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

This has been discussed since the moment it happened.

I take pride in knowing obscure rules about sports; I never knew this rule existed.

[thecardiacrll]

Sorry I was late to the party. I thought the rule was dumb but never really thought of the possible way you could cheat the system. If it's a dumb topic i apologize I just thought it was interesting. When the play happened in Detroit and the ref said because he threw his flag the play is now non-reviewable I thought it was the most ridiculous rule i ever heard of. It does make sense that in my example Shanahan shouldn't benefit from a BS challenge but it also doesn't make sense to take away a challenge ever especially on a terrible call. Replay is hear to help the refs make correct calls. I wanna see how the rule is written. Again if this was a pointless thread by all means MODS please lock. I barely start new threads mostly i comment on other peoples threads I just thought this was an interesting topic and I didn't find anything about it in the search.

[Geneva]

This will be changed after the season ends. Cost them the game.

[thecardiacrll]

There's no loophole. The play CAN be reviewed, it's just that the review can't benefit the penalized team. So, throwing a challenge flag to prevent the other team from benefiting from a review won't work. They'll get the review plus the 15 yard penalty and you will look like a fool for trying to exploit a loophole that doesn't exist.

The rule is dumb on its own merit. It doesn't need a fictitious loophole to make it garbage. End thread.

Is that how the rule is written though? That it can't benefit the penalized team or does it cancel out the challenge completely? I was under the impression the rule was written saying it cancels out the challenge completely for everyone.