Free Kick

[nelson_28602]

I heard about this situation last night and welcome your comments.
K free kicks from the 20 following a safety. The kicker miskicks the ball, it touches R at K's 32 and rebounds back to K's 25. The players try to recover but the ball keeps getting pushed back toward K's goaline. You get the idea. My question is: What is the ruling if noone can gain possesion and the kick rolls out of K's endzone? Is this a safety on K? NFHS ruling only please. Thanks in advance.

[NorCalRef12]

It depends who provided the force that actually forced the ball across K's goal line. Force is not a factor for kick's crossing R's goal line (8-5-3a1). But it would be relevant on a ball crossing K's goal line.

You would have to judge who forced the ball across K's goalline. If it was R, then you have a touchback. If K forces the ball across it's own goal line, you have a safety.

[mbyron]

It depends on what force puts it into the endzone, and what happens to it there.

Here's the basic principles (Rule 6-4):

[whitehat]

Good question Mr. Nelson:
I agree with the above posts with a bit of commentary for learning and good measure.
Something to consider when determining if a new force has been added is what provided the inital force? In this case a legal kick. A new force cannot be added to the kick until it has been grounded. So, as I understand your example the kick has been grounded and therefore the key would be determining who forced it back into the EZ. Could have back to back safetys IMO.
Also, all this would be action during a loose ball play and therefore if you had a penalty the basic spot would be the previous spot and therefore a re-kick is possible.
Some really wierd stuff can happen in a football game! I pray for those straight forward, run of the mill, generic situations, fouls and enforcements...few games are that accomodating in my experience.

[Robert Goodman]

This is also a free kick out of bounds short of R's goal line. In Fed & NCAA, R's touching of the ball negates the foul, but in NFL, regardless of any number of prior touches by R, it's a foul by K if K was the last to touch the ball before it became dead out of bounds.

Robert