ruling

[deepsouth_46]

I have heard a million things on the ruling from Sunday, but is it in fact legal to fumble the ball forward and recover in the endzone by anyone other than the fumbler? If thats the case, the same logic could be used that gave the ball back to pitt as Big Ben was definately not the one who recovered. I know this is way late, but I havent seen that question answered in any other forum or article. Thanks!

 

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

It is legal except on 4th down, "the Stabler Rule"

 

[Nick13]

Is it only 4th down? I thought it was in all situations. And I can't believe I didn't think of that. I know that rule screwed us once when Lamar Smith fumbled going into the endzone and someone else on Miami recovered, and it was ruled a touchback. That would give the ruling a very different color, because if they ruled that it was a fumble (which they did), they should have been looking to see conclusive visual evidence that Big Ben recovered it, if he did not, then by this rule, shouldn't it have automatically been ruled a touchback? It's interesting. I'll have to look more into the '4th down only' aspect.

EDIT: Upon further inspection, it is only on 4th down or the last 2 minutes of the half.