re: If a QB accidentally releases the ball on the forward motion of a pump fake

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The whole point of including “toward the neutral zone” is to define what “forward” means, not to insert a requirement that in order to attempt a forward pass you have to be behind the neutral zone. If that were a requirement, then there could be no illegal forward passes, it would just be fumbles.

Just because this rule specifically explains what a forward pass is in the context of a player throwing from behind the LOS, it doesn’t negate what a forward pass is when the player is beyond the LOS.

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