Is it ever legal to decline a false start?

[gstelmack]

From one of our game logs today:

4-02-SEA38 (04:40) Penalty: SEA - False Start. Penalty was declined.

4-02-SEA38 (04:30) SEA 8 Maddox pass completed to 89 Kinney for 5 yards (OOB).
Tackled by DAL 98 Ellis.

How does that first play ever happen? I thought False Start was a deadball foul before the snap. Can you decline that? And why would you?

[sovereignstar]

Bug. Probably has something to do with it being 4th down already.

[rkmsuf]

Rich Kotite used to decline those all the time.

[pennywisesb]

Rich Kotite used to decline those all the time.


LMAO. Good ole Richy.

[JimboJ]

Doesn't it depend whether the official blows the whistle and declares the play dead (the whole unabated to the QB thing)? If they do, then there is no play and you would have no alternative but to accept the penalty. But if they allow the play to continue, and for example if the QB gets sacked, then you might want to decline the penalty and accept the play.

[Pumpy Tudors]

On a false start, the play can't continue.

[Chas in Cinti]

Many of the officials will signal "False Start" when it is truly an "Illegal Motion" penalty.

FWIW....

Regards,
Chas

[Glengoyne]

From one of our game logs today:

4-02-SEA38 (04:40) Penalty: SEA - False Start. Penalty was declined.

4-02-SEA38 (04:30) SEA 8 Maddox pass completed to 89 Kinney for 5 yards (OOB).
Tackled by DAL 98 Ellis.

How does that first play ever happen? I thought False Start was a deadball foul before the snap. Can you decline that? And why would you?
Lost a game in highschool like this.

It was the end of the game. We had the ball inside the opponent's ten, but it was fourth and goal. The offense lined up, and ran a play, but it was blown dead because of a false start. The play continued, resulting in an incomplete pass. The other coach came running out yelling that he declined the penalty. The referees confered a little bit, and declared that the ball had been turned over on downs. Words cannot describe the utterances evoked by such a declaration. Only the passage of time, allows me to recall these events without an incessant stream of profanity.

The referees were of course wrong.

[Koryo]

The only time I have seen it declined was when a coach was being a little too smart on fourth down and didn't want to give the opposing team more room to punt a ball. (I.e. they were close enough to punt the ball into the endzone but not close enough to kick a field goal).

Much like you will see a delay of game penalty that some coaches take to both run time off the game clock and also give themselves room to punt and avoiding a touchback.

[Pumpy Tudors]

It's been a few years since I've seen a delay of game penalty declined as Koryo described. I wonder if the NFL no longer allows teams to decline dead ball fouls. It only makes sense to do that, because a game could go on indefinitely if a team just kept taking delays of game until their opponents stopped declining.