Weekly question (#4)

[ljudge]

Headed out of town so here it is a day early....

From the K-5, K21 is in his end zone to punt the ball. He muffs the snap, the ball hits the ground and R30 bats the ball to prevent him from recovering it. The ball strikes the
pylon and then, at the 7 yard line, R15 tries to pick up the ball and muffs it where K12 falls on the loose ball at the 3 yard line.

Give the following:

Result of play
If a penalty exists, what is it for accepting / declining?

[Middleman]

NFHS:
Result of the play is a Safety. The loose ball struck the pylon which is out of bounds behind the goal line. K's snap was the force that put the ball in the end zone, so K is responsible.

You seem to want a foul for batting by R30 (It's something he wouldn't do intentionally, because he'd rather recover for a TD - unless it's BLATANT it shouldn't be called) so we'll pretend he did it. The penalty for this foul is 15 yards. Because it was a foul by R behind K's goal line, enforcement would be from the goal line.

If K declines the penalty, it would be a safety, K would free-kick from their own 20 yard line.

If K accepts the penalty, the ball would be spotted on K's 15 yard line, replay the down or award a new series depending on where the line to gain was (you didn't say). The play ended when the ball went out of bounds so the clock would start on the snap.

[Dale Smith]

Middleman
Isn’t this play is a loose ball play (backwards pass)? In this case wouldn’t the penalty be 15 yards enforced from the previous spot.
Dale Smith

[Middleman]

Yep, I reckon you're right, Dale. I had the special enforcement on my mind and wasn't thinking "loose-ball-play." So acceptance would put the ball on the twenty. Everything else the same. Thanks for pointing that out.

[ljudge]

Official ruling: You guys got it. After the ball hits the pylon it's dead so the stuff that happened after that is of no significance.

The result of the play is indeed a safety so team A would certainly accept the penality by R for the illegal bat.

Good dialog on the special enforcement. That's correct, it's during loose ball play so the enforcement spot is the previous spot. The FED could do a better job of explaining the special enforcement rule. It should have something in parenthesis in 10.5 like "(and it's a running play)."

[Bob M.]

Originally posted by ljudge
(snip)...The FED could do a better job of explaining the special enforcement rule. It should have something in parenthesis in 10.5 like "(and it's a running play)."

REPLY: Same thing for NF 10-4-5d...