mcwilly18 wrote:
As noted from the rule book tab flag guarding is a spot foul. However, does the down get replayed after the spot foul is assessed? I.e, the flag guard happened on 3rd down. Is it still 3rd down after the penalty is assessed or is it now 4th down? To me its weird that the offensive team can still gain yardage on this penalty and then get to replay the down.
3.Flag Guarding - A runner shall not flag guard by using their hands, arms, shoulder, or the ball to deny the opportunity for an opponent to pull or remove the flag belt. A player may use a spin move, however; must keep their arms away from their flag to avoid flag guarding. If a runner blocks another players attempt to grab their flag within their normal running motion, it is to be accessed as Flag Guarding.
Penalty: Flag guarding, 5 yards from the spot of the penalty.
I always thought it worked essentially like the play was over, and the runner gets 5 yards back from where he was tackled. It makes no sense why you would replay the down and I don't remember a game where we replayed the down on a flag guard. In our game we had enough people arguing about the call so I didn't feel the need to jump in though.