In addition to the imprecision you’ve noted, the riddlers failed to specify offensive or defensive pass interference. Imagine if the offense had the ball on its own 1 and was called for offensive pass interference in its own end zone. Considering all possible correct answers, you could end up putting anywhere from less than one to a bit more than 299 cans of onion soup in your casserole. Yum.

Another reader e-mailed a correct answer before you did, but since the rules specified “the first reader to post,” I have to hand the prize to John.

I believe the answer should be “3,” since the ball will be placed on the one-yard line.

One possible imprecision in the riddle is that it does not indicate whether the previous line of scrimmage was already within one yard of the goal–in which case it would be advanced “half-the-distance,” rather than being moved backwards.

Another (silly) imprecision is that the riddle does not specify from which goal line the measurement should be made. Thus, “297″ could be equally as valid as “3.”

Cheers,
tailgaters.for.riddles@spamgourmet.com