Illegal procedure
American football referee hand signal
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In the National Football League, an illegal procedure is used to refer to a number of different penalties.
Types of illegal procedure
Some penalties are signalled with a generic "illegal procedure" signal.[1] Examples are:
- False start
- Illegal formation
- Kickoff or safety kick out of bounds
- Player voluntarily going out of bounds and returning to the field of play on a punt
Some examples of similar penalties have their own signals. Examples include:
- Illegal shift
- Illegal motion
- Illegal forward pass
- Illegal touching of a forward pass
- Ineligible receiver downfield
- Illegal substitution
Usage at different levels
It is used similarly to the professional level at both the high school level,[2] and at the college level.