Illegal Ball

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Fan10

When did they eliminate the kicking ball? I was the manager of my HS team, and we always had 2 QB balls and 2 kicking balls. The officials were always fine with that. I can remember once before the game when they asked to see the balls. At the time, our QB balls were being used for warmups. I told them I'd have those for them in a minute, but in the meantime, here's this one. And, I handed him one of our kicking balls. He said, "This has to be a kicking ball!" I said, "Yes sir, it is." He replied while laughing and marking it as legal, "I can spot those kicking balls a mile away!" Then, another time, we were going for 2, and thinking that we were kicking a PAT, I ran in a kicking ball to the umpire. As I started off the field, the U yelled back at me, "Hey, this is a 2 point conversion. Is this the one you want?"

I've only been out of HS 9 years. You saying they eliminated the kicking ball years ago makes me feel old!

Once a ball starts a series, it stays on the field. I can't find when this rule was put in place, but I can't remember in the last 15 years using special kicking balls.

A team can bring any ball out it wants to start a series, but it stays through the series. Likewise, a team can free kick with any ball it wants, but it has to be an approved ball (approved by the referee prior to the game).

A team cannot bring a special ball out to punt or attempt a placekick (with the exception of a try after a touchdown occurs after a change of possession).

This could be a regional thing. All I know is it doesn't fly with us. Once a series starts, the only way the ball gets changed is if we initiate the change.