Yesterday, 11:25 PM
When your team has the ball, you get 4 "downs", or plays, in football. The first play is first down, then second down, third down and fourth down. But if you go a total of at least 10 yards on those plays, then it goes back to first down and you get to keep going toward the endzone. On the 4th "down", typically there will be a punt to the other team, or if you are close enough to the endzone you can go for a field goal kick for 3 points, or if you are like 1 or 2 yards away from getting your 10 yard "first down" and desperate for points you might play the 4th down to try get that last couple yards and reach it.. but if you don't get to the 10 yard minimum on your fourth down, the other team gets the ball wherever you ended up.. which is typically why you would punt the ball down the field as far as possible on fourth down, to the other team, so they have to go all the way across the field to get their touchdown.
The guys on the "line of scrimage" in the middle are the "linemen" and they have rules, for example, the offensive line is trying to defend the quarterback or the running back from being tackled. They aren't allowed to "hold" the other players with their arms, like hug them, or grab them, etc.. they have to use their body and arms to "block" them.
So let's say it's third down and 4 yards to go to get the first down, the tv screen will say "3rd and 4". Let's say they are in the middle of the field on the 50 yard line and they pass the ball for 15 yards, it is caught and they are tackled. That would be a first down.. but the ref throws a yellow flag for a penalty on the offense, holding, 10 yard penalty. They would have to go back 10 yards from the original line of scrimage, so they would be back on the 40 yard line for the other team and they would have to go 14 yards on the next play, otherwise they would likely need to punt the ball.
The head referee would get on the mic and say, "Holding. Offense. 10 yard penalty. Replay 3rd down"
However, it's a really important play toward the end of the game, the coach doesn't think there was actually any holding and so the coach asks the refs to "review" the footage. There is a small limit to how many times you can do this. The refs review the video footage and find the coach was correct, there was no holding, the ref just had a bad angle and thought there was holding.
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