Kicks into the endzone: rationale

[bossman72]

Originally Posted by mbyron

I have two guesses. First, kicks complicated to rule on: when does the kick end, muff vs. fumble, fair catch, momentum, and on and on. NFHS tries to simplify the rules where it can: so the ball is dead if the kick crosses the plane of the goal line.

I'd go with this one. This would be similar to baseball's immediate dead ball on a balk. Don't think- just enforce.

[RadioBlue]

Originally Posted by bossman72

I'd go with this one. This would be similar to baseball's immediate dead ball on a balk. Don't think- just enforce.

But ... the dead ball on a kick into the endzone has been around MUCH longer than the dead ball for an NFHS balk. The deadball balk rule has only been in place for about a decade.

[Husker John]

I was a former kicker in high school and college and it had always been explained to me that safety was the primary reason for this rule. In addition, back (oh so many years ago) there were not too many kickers that could routinely hit the end zone. It has now become a big weapon in field position portion of the game.