O1 and D1 go up for a pass. They both come down to the ground with thier feet and they continue to gain possession. D1 takes the ball away for possession and the o1 takes himn to the ground.
What is the call?

D1 ball, change of posession, 1st and ten the other way.

Joint possession, if you rule it as such when they come down, is a dead ball in possession of the offense.

Agreed. When two opponents return to the ground, with the ball in joint possession, the play ends there. Anything that happens after that is dead ball.

Has anyone ever called joint posession on a catch?

'joint possession' will get you 3-5 around here!

A game earlier this season we actually had two. One that I was covering was a textbook example: two opponents are airborne and both grab the ball and pull it in. They return to the ground simultaneously, each with their arms around the ball and cradled to their chests. Never saw one like that before. The other one in that game was covered and called by the HL who described his much the way I described mine.

We had it this year for the 1st time. Our wing man nailed the call, blowing it dead as they tried to run, we explained it to the confused coach, he understood and was pretty impressed.

I had one in flag football (where rules are based on NFHS) this season. The kicker: it occured in the end zone. You can imagine how the defensive players took the news...

OOPS! Missed that one due to missing the joint posession dead ball idea.

Key words here are "Joint Possession". When both the offense and defense possess the ball at the same time. There actually is NO change of possession. The offense still has the ball. Now if both come down with the ball at the same time and are still on their feet, THEN the defender takes the ball, that is when you have a change of possession and the defense has the ball.

Exkalybr-
You post is incorrect.
It is not possible for the defense to gain control of the fooball on the play you desrcibe. If (as you described above) "<i>both come down with the ball at the same time and still on their feet"</i> <b> The play is immediatly over, the ball becomes (and should be blown) dead, and is awarded to A at that spot.</b> Any action occuring after this point is merely action during a dead ball and (unless a personal foul or usportsmanlike occurs) is ignored!
Please see:
NFHS <b>Rule Book 7-5-4</b>, and,
NFHS <b>Case Book 7.5.4</b>
I hope this helps.

No. Once you decide there is joint possession when they both come down, the play is dead. Nothing that happens after matters.

As has been said before "joint possession" of a pass causes the ball to become dead and it stays in possession of the team last in possession. In fact, there is no requirement to hit the ground, the ball becomes dead immediately.

So, lets say both A and B players catch the ball in the air. On the way toward the ground B wrestles it away from A. The ball is already dead and possession belongs to the team last in possession.

I might argue that neither has possession in the air, as it requires landing in bounds to demonstrate possession (remember the whole catch-out-of-bounds-in-the-air and pitch thread?). Until they land, neither has possession.

Ed, I disgaree with you on this, I'm with Mcrowder. Read the definition of possesion, which says a player is in posession when he/she catches it, then read the deifnition of a catch. The requirement is that a player must be touching inbounds.

You are right 2.4.3 Comment and 7.4.3.

Consider this, A1 and B1 jointly control a pass in flight but from the contact land out of bounds.

This is going to be a tough one to sell to the coaches, but if they both had the ball in the air, and the contact forced them out of bounds, you have A's ball - complete pass.

I agree with that scenario but that is not the one you said.

Thanks for the clarification, I did not know that a ball in "Joint Posession" immediately becomes dead when both players "possess it". I thought that the A player, not having been downed, and the B player with their hands on the ball fighting over it, A player tries to advance a few more yards and B takes it away from him was legal. I stand corrected.

Yep, and A gets the ball.