NFL Touchback on Punts

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by Bullycon

My coworker had this question about the Colts-Chargers game and I wasn't sure exactly what the answer was.

On the Chargers final punt of the game, he believes that the Chargers player gained control of the ball while airborne, and that his foot hit the pylon before any part of his body hit the ground.

Now, I don't remember the replay of this punt, so I don't know exactly what happened. Just going by the one fuzzy video I saw on YouTube, I don't think he's right, but whatever. So forgetting the actual play, if the above scenario occurred, what is the ruling? Touchback? Or Colts ball on their own 1?

For the purposes of this discussion, the ball never breaks the plane of the goalline. The player never touches the ground in the endzone. The player jumps from the field of play, recovers the ball in the air after it has touched the ground at least once, and before he lands in bounds or out of bounds, his foot touches the pylon.

On a side note: I am correct that in both NFHS and NCAA the ball is dead at the point where it is recovered, 1st and 10 from the 1, right?

Your friend did not get a very good look at that play if that's the way he described it. I'm a Colts fan and have the game on DVR so I just watched that play again. A Chargers player does attemt to recover the ball while it was on the ground and rolling out of bounds (he was not airborn). From the only angle they provided, you don't get a great look at it but it appears the ball hit out of bounds at the 1 before he recovered it. As he continuned his momentum out of bounds (all while still on the ground), he does hit the pylon but it was after the ball became dead either by touching out of bounds or being recovered by a defender on the ground and then out of bounds. This was no doubt a dead ball at the 1.

To answer our hypothetical, if the player recovers the ball while airborn and then touches the pylon on the way down, I believe that is a touchback at all levels.