Illegal procedure

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. 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, and at the college level.

References