Football Needs a Zeroth Down

There may be plenty of unequitable penalties in North American football in
some play situations, but there's a certain kind of play situation wherein
the penalty is always a gyp to the team with the ball.  I refer to live
ball fouls in situations where the next play was going to be a first down
anyway and the penalty involves neither loss of down nor automatic first 
down.

Example: Change of possession of the ball occurs during a play, and as
play goes on during the runback/return, a foul involving some kind of
illegal block (illegal use of hands, clipping, tripping, blocking below 
the waist) by either team is detected.  If the penalty is declined, the 
team ending up with the ball will have first down coming.  However, if the 
penalty is enforced, then the team ending up with the ball will have...
first down anyway!

If that doesn't sound funny, consider all other play siuations in which a
penalty causes a down to be repeated.  The team with the option gets to
choose whether to take the distance and have the down again, or to accept
the down as it ended, with play moving on to the next down.  That can be
a difficult choice especially when the defense has the option.  But in the
example above, the defense has its cake and eats it too by accepting the
distance penalty.  It functions as if it were a loss of down, because
there's no down numbered 0.

So there should be a zeroth down.  The instant the ball changes team
possession while remaining live it becomes zeroth down.  Ordinarily when
the ball becomes dead, the down advances as usual, so it becomes first
down and the line-to-gain is set, i.e. first-and-ten.  But if a penalty
is enforced relative to play during that interval when it was zeroth down,
and the penalty calls for the down to be repeated, the next scrimmage is
zeroth down.  No line-to-gain is set until the down advances to first.

Another example: Team A advances the ball beyond the line-to-gain and a
foul is then detected before the ball becomes dead or changes team
possession.  Here again, if the penalty is against team B, having the next
down as first cheats team A.  They should get the distance of the penalty
and a play on zeroth down.

It shouldn't be hard to add a plate reading 0 to the down signpost.  All
that remains is to add a referee's signal for zeroth down.  Probably make
an O with thumb and forefinger.  And if Canadian football ever goes back
to arm instead of hand signals for the down numbers, maybe a Roman/fascist
salute with arm straight out in front.

Robert M. Goodman
Dec. 2000