This happened to me last night and i was unsure about a call made by the refs and I was wondering if you could clear a few thing up for me. This is 9th grade football in Missouri.

I will tell the story in first person. My team punted the ball, and the ball bounced off the returner and into the endzone and my team recovered it. Explain to me why that is not a touchdown.

Thank you

Because, presuming you are playing Federation rules, ANY non-scoring kick (a punt cannot score any points) is automatically dead and is a touchback by rule when it crosses R's goal line (8-5-3a). Force is not a factor on kicks entering R's end zone.

So in your play, your team could not recover the kick for a touchdown. The ball became dead when it entered R's end zone.

Okay guys, this explanation is for a player, not for officials
 

When any kick that doesn't score goes into the endzone, it is a touchback. It doesn't matter if the receiver has touched the ball or not. Once the ball goes into the EZ, the receiver cannot return it and neither team can recover it. It's already dead.

That's why it wasn't a touchdown.

Thank you I hadn't heard of that rule before.

We won 13-6 if anyone cares.

I believe that the call was right but something is missing. Was the ball grounded? If the ball was grounded then a muff may become the new force. A muff is never a force to a ball in flight. Glad you won.

You're confusing your end zones.
 

It doesn't matter. A kick that enters R's end zone is always a touchback, whether it's grounded, muffed, or still in flight.

[Edited by BktBallRef on Sep 13th, 2001 at 08:49 PM]

Re: Okay guys, this explanation is for a player, not for officials
 

Thanks, bktballref for steering the group to a simpler explanation!

zeb

Not so. A muff may apply new force to a kick, backward pass, or fumble once it has been grounded. Any muff on a kick in flight should not be considered a new force.

You're confused but perhaps because I confused you. This kick is going into R's endzone, not K's. Therefore, it is always a touchback.