Punt into the Endzone....

[Smoke]

High School Rules...
I know if a Kickoff goes into the endzone it is a touchback but what about a punt that goes into the endzone. The other night Team R ran the ball out of the endzone up to the 15 to 20 yard line. Correct Call??

[jfurdell]

No, it should have been a touchback as soon as it crossed the goal line.

[SWFLguy]

ball crosses the goal line---- dead ball--- touchback !
NCAA--- R can run the ball out of the end zone--
was at college game Saturday and a fan asked me why
it was so in most states for high school-- my guess was
for safety reasons -------
anyone know that for sure ???

[Smoke]

That is what I thought,but because Team R was offsides it gave Team K a first down, so I forgot about intill later watching it on film it reminded me.

[Mike Simonds]

Not sure about the origin of the rule. Safety reason sounds good to me.

I wanted to make a point about field goals going into R's endzone. Punts and field goals are both scrimmage kicks.

Rules 4-2-2d, 6-3-1, and 8-5-3 covers this. Nonscoring scrimmage kicks become dead when they break the plane of R's goal line.

A field goal attempt falls under the exception. It becomes dead when it has crossed the plane of R's goal line and has failed to score.

I was watching a game recently when the field goal attempt hit the upright and rebounded into the field of play and R advanced it about 35 yards. It should have been blown dead when it hit the cross bar and was rebounding towards the field of play.

The kicking game is where a lot of strange things can happen!

[STEVED21]

Smoke, what state are you in? If R was in the neutral zone, the play should have been killed. Encroachment is a dead ball foul. FED does not have offsides.

[snrmike]

Endzone dude, endzone.

[STEVED21]

His second post said R was "offside". That's what my post refers to.

[Smoke]

Yea I am not sure why they did not stop the play. only after Team R was tackled did they talk about the offsides.

[BoBo]

I agree with the above but do not get in too big of a hurry to blow the play dead. You could always have a momentum ruling on R whether it be a punt or a field goal attempt.

[STEVED21]

BoBo,

Where would momentum come into play in this example?

[BoBo]

In the above example momentum does not exist, but the comment of whenever the ball breaks the plane of the goal line it is a touchback can be misleading. We had a green horn one night and he was our back judge. Punt is caught by R at his 2 yard line and his momentum carried him into the endzone. He remembered that when ball crosses plane it is a touch back. Blew whistle and called touch back. Not a good situation.

[STEVED21]

The original play was that a KICK croosed the plane. It's always a touchback when a kick crosses the goal line. In your play and for the momentum exception to apply the kick must end by R gaining possession. These two rules are mutually exclusive and should never be confused.