How to Signal Illegal Participation in Football

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Brian Currier and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. I'm here to talk about football penalties and the hand signals that the officials use to indicate the penalties. A number of the penalties have different rules associated with them depending upon the level of football you're talking about, whether it's high school, college, or the NFL. As much as possible, we'll indicate where those differences are. By rule, a player may enter the field of play only when the ball is dead and when he leaves the field, he must be across his own sideline. In addition, the offense must have all players involved in the play inside of the numbers before the ball is snapped. At the NFL level, the offense is required to have the 11 players that will be involved in the play in the huddle when the huddle is broken. Illegal participation occurs when a team has more than 11 players on the field during the course of play. The signal for illegal participation is (video demo, both hands on top of head, elbows out)."