Kick Catch Interference
NFHS
K1 punts the ball to R1. K2 hits R1 simultaneously as R1 catches the ball and is tackled. Can this be KCI? In my mind, an absolute KCI if R2 mishandles the ball. The only problem I had is that R1 held on to the ball. |
According to NFHS rules, K may contact R once the R player touches the kick in flight. There is no "halo" rule in high school.
There isn't a very good case book play on this, but if you're the covering official, I would be VERY sure that R had touched the ball before letting K get away with blocking R. |
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If R caught the ball then there's no KCI.
7-5-6...While any free kick is in flight in or beyond the neutral zone to the receiver’s goal line or any scrimmage kick is in flight beyond the neutral zone to the receiver’s goal line, K shall not: a. Touch the ball or R, unless blocked into the ball or R, or to ward off a blocker; or b. Obstruct R’s path to the ball. This prohibition applies even when no fair-catch signal is given, but it does not apply after a free kick has been touched by a receiver, or after a scrimmage kick has been touched by a receiver who was clearly beyond the neutral zone at the time of touching. |
Contact with the kick receiver simultaneous to his contact with the punt is KCI as this is an interference with the opportunity to make the catch, it does not matter if R ends up with a catch or not. If he completes the catch and then is contacted, no foul for KCI, but if he his hit before he has the opportunity to complete the catch then I've got KCI.
touching always precedes possession, and touching vacates the KCI, but I believe that if they are simultaneous we've got a foul. |
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But that contradicts what you've said in your second paragraph: it is possible to have KCI if R touches the ball, and even if R catches the ball, if the contact occurs before the catch is complete. The case play ruling introduces the standard of an "unmolested opportunity to catch the ball." K can interfere with that opportunity and yet R somehow still catches the ball. Just as in baseball, a runner can interfere with a fielder yet the fielder might still make the play. Merely making the play does not mean there was no interference. |
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I would submit that the mention of FC protection NOT applying after a Kick (Free or Scrimmage) has been touched (NF:6-5-6) is included to cover situations as described in Case Book 6.5.6.E, where a player touches a kick in flight, but does not instantly continue completing the catch (muffed, bobbled, batted, tipped, etc). When any of that occurs, and the catch is subsequently completed, it is a FC, but during the interval between R's touching and the subsequent completion of the catch (following the muff, bobble, bat or tip), both K and R have equal access to the loose ball , so there is no additional (FC) protection afforded to R. The only "true simultaneous" existing under NFHS rules is a "simultaneous catch" (NF: 2-4-3). Just about everything else is based on "either/or" logic. FC aside, contact by K either happened before R was able to complete the catch, or it happened after the catch. Once again, that's a judgment call and "one size will never fit all". |
Canadian Ruling
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15-yard Restraining Zone foul. If you rule UR as well, an additional 15 yards. |
What would the NCAA ruling be on this?
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I will add that the opportunity for a catch has ended once R muffs the kick. That would explain why contacting the R player after a muff is not KCI. |
"After the kick has been touched by a receiver" means "after the kick has been touched by a receiver." Touched is touched. Once he touches it there cannot be KCI. I don't like the rule, but there are several NF rules I don't like.
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