7 seconds
I got the official answer for you. I was flipping through the channels last night and came across the NFL replay on NFL Network of this game and it happened to be right at this point in the game. They had the VP official Mike Perrira explain what the deal was. He said that it has nothing to do with players getting onside\offside the reason the umpire stood over the ball was to wait for the line judges to get back off the field. They even showed the clip. As soon as the line judges were off the field the umpire backed off the ball they were free to snap it. So the line judges had to come in to spot the ball and then get off the field before it can be snapped. I've never really paid attention to this but what happens in a 2 min drill at the end of a game it seems like it happens a lot faster than this.
Anyways it has nothing to do with allowing player time to set-up etc...
Thanks for this - just coming back to this thread. That makes sense.
Aaack!
Football is important but pales in comparison to beer and deserts.
If you are going to be in the desert, you may as well have beer.
