Blocked Kicked

[grantsrc]

Originally Posted by The Roamin' Umpire

I suspect there's a misunderstanding here - if I'm wrong, my apologies, Grant.



The fact that it is still a kick would only matter (a) if the ball were going into R's end zone, or (b) if the kick were still in flight. New force may be added to a grounded kick, even if it is still rolling.

PLAY: K 4/20 @ K10. Punt from goal line is blocked by R @ K5. Ball is rolling towards the sideline @ K7 when it is muffed by R. The muff causes the ball to roll into K's end zone, where it is recovered by the punter.

RULING: Touchback. R provided a new force to the grounded scrimmage kick.

Now, our original play presumed a ball much closer to the goal line and less of an impact by R, so it sounds like a safety. But the bottom line is that on a grounded kick, it's going to be a judgement call on whether a muff by R causes the ball to enter the end zone.

This play is verbatim from this year's case book, page 57, 8.5.2 C. I think my confusion here is I was thinking in terms of "once a kick, always a kick" until possessed. I was specifically thinking of R's endzone, not K's endzone. Obviously when dealing with K's own endzone, that is where force and a grounded kick comes into play. I was thinking along the wrong lines. Plays like this encourage me to get into the rule and casebook and figure things out. Thanks for the clarification.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: The issue in the original post isn't whether it's still a kick or not; it's who supplied the force. As described, I would go with the kick still being the force and a safety would result.