MHSAA Trick Question ?

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by BroKen62

So then, it's not a kick in the sense that it's not one of the 2 legal kicks - free or scrimmage, the player has simply "kicked" the ball? That seems to make the most sense according to the way it's treated. If it were a "kick" then we would have to apply the appropriate kicking rules, such as "being dead when it crossed the goal line. But b/c it wasn't a "kick," it is still a loose ball, treated like any other loose ball that is not a kick.

So then I am out of date in that Fed has a new (to me) definition of "kick" as a noun. I was going back to the time when all the USAn codes distinguished merely kicking the ball from a kick; the latter was defined as a punt, drop, or place kick. But it looks like the effect of the new language is the same as it would've been, so I don't know what they gained by making "kicking the ball" synonymous with making a kick, when they had to then add language as to how a kick other than those kicks be treated. Presumably this allowed them to condense some provisions regarding illegally kicking the ball with the rules on illegal kicks.

Do NCAA & NFL still distinguish illegally kicking the ball from making an illegal kick?

[Welpe]

Robert, I'm not sure about the NFL but the NCAA still does distinguish between the two. An illegal scrimmage kick will cause the ball to become dead and is a 5 yard penalty from the previous spot. Illegally kicking the ball does not cause the ball to become dead and is a 15 yard penalty enforced under 3 and 1.