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Recently, my friends and I were discussing football situations after watching the Monday Night Football game.
The topic of onside kicks came up and we ended up having a friendly argument. I couldn't find an answer anywhere else, so I thought I would ask some knowledgeble experts.
The question was, on a onside kick situation, is it legal for the kicking team to recover an onside kick that was kicked high in the air without touching the ground or the opposing player and travels over 10 yards?
I'm not totally up on NFL rules but in High School the ball must travel 10 yards and touch the ground (in either order) before the kicking team can recover.
We thought if this was legal, wouldn't it be easier for the kicking to kick it high in the air and the receiving team and the kicking team go at it like a jump ball instead of the traditional onside kick we're all familiar with.
You'd have to pray the ball tipped off a receiver first before you recovered.
On a similar subject, we also had an argument if the receiving team can use the fair catch on Kick-offs?
Anybody know?
In High School they can.
This is why they kick the ball down into the ground and pop it up- the receivers can no longer call fair catch and the requirement that the ball hit the ground before the kickers recover is met.
I believe NFL rules for this are very similar- if not the same.
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