[Robert Goodman]

This arises from the "kick play" thread as a consequence of how Fed now defines kicks.

In NCAA the interpret'ns specifically say that if a disallowed type of kick is used for a free kick, or the ball is kicked from a side zone, the ball is allowed to become live, and it's treated as a foul as the ball becomes live. But what about Fed? Suppose K1 punts the ball when it's RFP via kickoff, or tries some funky technique that wouldn't produce a legal kick under any circumstance, such as rolling the ball on the ground and kicking it. Because of the way Fed now defines its kicks, neither would be a "free kick", so the ball would remain dead. But would you whistle immediately for "delay of game" because of this being "action which prevents promptness in putting the ball in play"? Or would you say the 25 sec. clock is still running, and allow team K to retrieve the ball if possible to do legally (say if it stayed on their side of the neutral zone, as a funky technique might very well result) and still put it in play legally? It would seem team R would be very likely to be induced to thinking the ball had been put in play whenever someone of K toes it, so a whistle for any excuse would seem prudent.

Does the case book have anything on this?