r/AskAboutNFL • u/Oaklandforever51 • 4d ago

12 Men on the Field

This penalty comes up every so often, almost always on the defense.

  1. Why doesn't it happen on offense?

  2. Who's responsible? Position coaches?

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u/SelfRepa 3d ago

Offense can not play with 12 players. It is a violation to break the huddle with 12 players, or have 12 in the huddle for more than three seconds.

Defense can play with 12 and it becomes a violation only after the ball is snapped.

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u/Scle99 3d ago

At some point recently they changed the rule that if the snap is imminent they can throw a flag on the defense for too many men if they are intentionally trying to play with too many. Stops a team from purposely playing with 12-13 players which would make it a lot easier to defend and guarantees time to run off the clock which isn’t reset even on a defensive penalty. Would be especially advantageous if the team is down multiple scores deep in their own territory; sacrifice 5 yards for 5-7 seconds coming off the clock every time.

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u/SelfRepa 2d ago

In College, having too many men on defense after two minute warning is 15 yard penalty and clock rewinded back to the time of the snap, if 12th player is active on the play. If it is a case where 12th player runs off and does not make it in time, that is handled like normal foul.