Kickoff play

[sm_bbcoach]

Need a confirmation about a ruling please:

K.O. from K's 40. R26 muffs the reception at his own 7. I (as referee) wind the clock and continue to officiate. Ball bounds into R's end zone. I rush in with a heavy selling job of touch back. It was the force of the KICK that put the ball over the goal line. The muff can not give it new force.. Coach of K disagrees with me. HE claims that I did not give his kids the chance to pounce on the ball for a TD since R touched it and made it live. I tried to explain the force thing on a muff and that his kids are only pouncing on a dead ball.

Am I right? I am really confident about the call.

[ABoselli]

You should be. A simpler rule doesn't exist. If it goes into the end zone on a kick and no one has possessed it prior, its always a TB.

I had a similiar situation last year as I was back with the receiver on a kickoff, strong wind blowing toward us, a hard knuckler is coming toward R and it skips off his hands and lands in the endzone. I whistle TB and reach down to pick up the ball. The K coach is screaming "GO GET IT!!!" as I'm standing there in the end zone with the ball in my hand. You can see the confusion on the faces of the K players as they resume their charge toward me. They're thinking, "coach said to go get the ball but the ref has it in his hand. What to do, what to do..."

I'm starting to get nervous now as they are bearing down on me at full speed so I blow it again hard then start yelling "Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?? You gonna tackle me??!!" I then explained to the K coach what happens in that situation. He wasn't aware.

The next kickoff, I said to the R player, "Catch it this time, OK boss?"

[Theisey]

Originally posted by sm_bbcoach
Need a confirmation about a ruling please:
...
Am I right? I am really confident about the call.

Don't even question yourself nor let yourself be grilled by a coach on this one. By NF decree all KICKs into the opponents EZ are a touchback.

Kicks are not over until the ball is possessed. Period!

[Smiley]

Remember, force is never a factor on kicks going into R's endzone.

[PSU213]

I agree with everything said so far. Its not a matter of force at all. There is really only 2 rules in play. One is the definition of a kick, specifically that a kick doesn't end until someone possesses the ball, and second, that any kick into R's EZ is always a TB the moment it crosses the plane of the GL. The fact that anyone has provided a new force to the grounded kick has zero bearing.

As for the coach, give him a quick explanation, but don't hold the game up. The rules handle this situation so clearly that there should really be no discussion other than to inform the coach of the rule.