(Editor's Note: NFHS Rules)

Possession is the most basic rule of the game of football. You cannot score a touchdown without possessing the football. Players dive for the ball when it is loose. Players practice diving for the ball. And nothing is more celebrated in football than when a lumbering lineman somehow picks up the ball and moves — albeit slowly — toward the goal line.

There is no place in any sport with a bigger adrenaline rush than players diving into the pile to recover a loose football: grunting, pushing, shoving, bodies flying. Then comes the official: "You, off!" "You don't have anything!"

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