Legal formation for OL?

[gopher2]

Per rulebook  ART. 9 . . . A lineman is any A player who is facing his opponent’s goal line with the line of his shoulders approximately parallel thereto and with his head or foot breaking an imaginary plane drawn parallel to the line of scrimmage through the waist of the snapper when the ball is snapped..

From this picture it would appear the left guard and left tackle and the top receiver shown (another further receiver, not shown, is on LOS) have their bodies at the same yard line. and thus in the backfield  I would interpret the "waist of the snapper" to esentially be the patch of white behind the snapper's upper left arm.  Is the LG too deep to be considered a lineman? 

[Bobref]

7 hours ago, gopher2 said:

Per rulebook  ART. 9 . . . A lineman is any A player who is facing his opponent’s goal line with the line of his shoulders approximately parallel thereto and with his head or foot breaking an imaginary plane drawn parallel to the line of scrimmage through the waist of the snapper when the ball is snapped..

From this picture it would appear the left guard and left tackle and the top receiver shown (another further receiver, not shown, is on LOS) have their bodies at the same yard line. and thus in the backfield  I would interpret the "waist of the snapper" to esentially be the patch of white behind the snapper's upper left arm.  Is the LG too deep to be considered a lineman? 

The left guard is questionable. I’d like to see what it looks like from the viewpoint of a wing official standing on the line of scrimmage.The left tackle is clearly bad. This is a foul simultaneous with the snap for an illegal formation, a 5 yd. live ball penalty, if accepted.

The conventional response to this is for the wing official to tell the referee to move those players up. The referee goes into the offensive huddle and tells them to move up. If they don’t, next step is tell the offending coach: “Coach, we’ve told your guard and tackle to get up on the line. Next time, it’s a foul.”  That usually takes care of it. If not, there’s always the flag.

[gopher2]

Thanks Bobref.

[JustRules]

I would also like to clarify the waist of the snapper is where it in this play, not where it would be if he was standing up where his feet are. You will have situations (especially on punts) where they are so far back you will go directly to foul an skip the warning.

[gopher2]

Thanks JustRules

 

[oldtimeqb]

Wing T Coaches: "You know our OL are properly lined up when the opposing coach is losing his mind about an illegal formation."  

I hate that mindset. 

My two biggest pet peeves watching a game.  When the offense tries to blur the line of scrimmage with lineman too far back and receivers either not clearly on/off the LOS. The offense can do anything they want post-snap, just make them get set and in a legal formation pre-snap.