Is a ball carrier down by contact...

[Kajun Ref N Texas]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

Of course, the ground can actually cause a fumble! If a guy goes airborn and the first thing to hit the ground is the ball and it pops out, the ground did cause the fumble!

I do hate it when I hear people say the ground can't cause a fumble. I know announcers have a job to do and generally they do a good job but they don't understand the rules and spread things like this too often.

With all due respect, do you really not know what the phrase means? I think we are getting a little to legalistic. It simply means that if you hit the ground and the ball pops out, you are down because you hit the ground first. Yes, if the ball hits first, it's a fumble. So the phrase, "the ground can't cause a fumble" is accurate unless the ball hits first.