Having 12 men in the huddle when on offense is going to result in an illegal substitution penalty. If 12 men enter the huddle the whistle will be blown immediately and will result in a loss of five yards.
12 men in the huddle is not an official penalty but rather an infraction that fits under the illegal substitution penalty.
Having twelve men in the huddle will only be called on the offense and not the defense.
If you want to learn about more penalties in football see our guides to an ineligible receiver downfield, tripping penalties or snap infractions.
Why is having 12 men in the huddle illegal?
Obviously, teams are not allowed to play a down with one more player than their opponents by why is this penalty called if twelve players simply huddle up in the backfield?
The reason this penalty is called in the huddle is because of its effect on defensive substitutions.
In football, the defense is constantly going to be watching which offensive players are on the field.
Say the offense is in 22 personnel which features two tight ends and two running backs. This likely means they are going to run the ball. To react to this the defense is going to bring some larger run-stopping players onto the field.
Now say the offense is in 10 personnel this will feature one running back no tight ends and four wide receivers.
This is a personnel grouping that is very likely to throw the ball which is why the defense will react by bringing on more defensive backs to stop the pass.
When the offense brings twelve players into the huddle the defense is left in the dark when it comes to what personnel they are using.
Without knowing which player is going to come off the field the defense will not be able to react with a substitution of their own. Once the offense breaks the huddle there will simply not be enough time.
In order fix this issue the offense must have only eleven players on the field by the time they start to huddle. Coaches at all levels are aware of this rule and should never send 12 offensive players onto the field.
This makes these penalties fairly easy to avoid similar to sideline warnings for coaches.
This gives the defense enough time to react to the substitutions that the offense may make.
Can the defense receive a 12 in the huddle penalty?
Only the offense can receive a penalty for having twelve players in their huddle. The reason for this is again due to substitutions.
In football, the defense makes substitutions based on what the offense is doing. This means it is always going to be the defense that reacts to the different personnel of the offense.
This results in the defensive team being the second team to complete their substitutions. For this reason, the defensive team can have more than eleven players on the field all the way up until the snap.
Since these defensive substitutions are made so last minute they are not penalized for having twelve players earlier in the play.
And since the offense is not reacting based on the defenses personnel they don’t have to be worried about giving the offense time to react to their changes.
If the play starts and the defense has twelve on the field they will be assessed a penalty.
Though instead of being assessed an illegal substitution penalty for having twelve players n the huddle they will be assessed a too many men on the field penalty.
Both of these infractions result in a loss of five yards from the previous spot.
