I have read that an NFL game averages 14 minutes of play and the clock runs down in between plays for the rest. That one play took sixty-two seconds (two seconds of playing time.) Awesome!
Did that last lateral actually bounce before it was caught by the scoring player? I guess bouncing is still considered "in play" (I'm not an American Football fan, so don't know all technicalities of incomplete passes), Yeah, it can bounce, and it's basically treated as a fumble: i.e. the other team can pick it up and run with it, as opposed to a forward pass. There was a nice little play in one of the college games that looked straight off the rugby pitch, and you have to assume that some college squads have at least one or two practices a season with the varsity rugby team, just to get some basic drills on how to make that kind of pass should you need a final-seconds miracle. The college game is also the sweet spot for planned weirdness when it comes to the playbook. And I love these things, even if I hate the word 'lateral' used to describe them.
Well, yeah, but when you're down two points with two seconds to go, and you've got the ball on your own 39-yard line, anything other than a touchdown is a loss, so who worries about fumbles? I agree. What I meant was these are the reasons it isn't used as standard play.
