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Old Wed Jul 15, 2009, 08:13am
Reffing Rev. Reffing Rev. is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: midwest/plains
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Most every post got this point, but some newer officials may be questioning this so I'll share it here...

Reminder: Force is the action which propels the ball across the goal line, not what causes it to become dead there.

So here is how I think about this play:
Fed: If there is any way the ball would have rolled into the endzone without R/B's muff then the force is A's, when the ball became dead in the endzone it is a safety.

If there is no way the ball would have rolled into the endzone without the muff then the force is B's, when the ball becomes dead in the endzone it is a touchback.

In either case it doesn't matter if K steps out of bounds, has the ball blocked out of bounds, or even kicks the ball so badly it goes out of bounds in the end zone...the force which put the ball into the endzone determines whether it is a safety or a touchback.

In most cases the only time I consider a muff a new force is when the ball is at rest or rolling (not bouncing) away from the goal line. (not bouncing because a football rarely bounces the same way twice)
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