kickoff oob enforcement

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by ajmc

NFHS is pretty simple, ANY/ALL legally kicked balls that break the plane of the receiving teams goal line are touchbacks. It doesn't matter who might have touched the kick, or how many times it was touched, where it's been, or who's signaled what, as long as it is still a kick, and the ball breaks the plane of R's goal line it's a TB.

Even if it first crossed the plane of a sideline between the goal lines?

[ajmc]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

Even if it first crossed the plane of a sideline between the goal lines?

If a kick was able to, somehow, (strong wind?) cross the plane of a sideline before breaking the plane of R's goaline it would have no effect whatsoever on the status of the kick, unless of course the kick subsequently, " touches anything, including a player or game official that is out of bounds."(NF: 2-29-3), at which point the kick would be considered over and OOB.

The phrase, "breaks the plane of the receiving team's goal line" does not automatically include or reference the "goal line extended".

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by ajmc

If a kick was able to, somehow, (strong wind?) cross the plane of a sideline before breaking the plane of R's goaline it would have no effect whatsoever on the status of the kick, unless of course the kick subsequently, " touches anything, including a player or game official that is out of bounds."(NF: 2-29-3), at which point the kick would be considered over and OOB.

The phrase, "breaks the plane of the receiving team's goal line" does not automatically include or reference the "goal line extended".

Thanks. That's a distinction I hadn't considered and seems to make all the difference. My Fed rule book is very old but in both the kicking and scoring rules uses the phrase "on or behind R's goal line", and in definitions has one for "goal line" that makes that distinction clear, and does not have a definition for "behind" that would blur that distinction (nor any global definition of "behind").

NCAA's wording is similar regarding "goal line" and references thereto and has a definition of "behind" that fortunately you'd have to strain at to blur the distinction between goal line/plane and its extension.

Unfortunately NFL's definition of "in touch" seems to leave this matter unclear.