Kick play

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by RadioBlue

2-24-4 (scrimmage kick definition) says a place kick must be controlled on the ground or a kicking tee by a teammate while 2-24-7 (place kick definition) says the ball may be controlled by a teammate. Article 7 goes on to say that a place kick may be used as a scrimmage kick. (Those definitions seem to contradict on another, no?) 2-24-7 also says that the ball must be in a fixed position to be kicked. Rule 9-7 only indicates it's illegal to intentionally kick a ball unless it is a free or scrimmage kick. I'd say it's entirely possible to legally kick the loose ball as long as it is completely stationary. Since the likelihood of that is quite small, I have IK on this play.

I agree with your reading, except that I don't see a contradiction between Fed 2-24 arts. 4 & 7. The sentence "For a place kick, the ball must be controlled on the ground or on a legal kicking tee by a teammate." was added to 2-24-4 to eliminate the possibility of a place kick out of an opponent's placement, as was the part in art. 7, "who shall be a teammate of the kicker." Previously a place kick could be made by an opponent of the player who placed the ball. The "also may" in art. 7 is poor wording for "may either".

The upshot of it is that for it to qualify as a place kick, the player who positioned the ball before it is kicked had to have had it in control and cannot have been an opponent of the kicker, and the ball must remain so positioned until kicked. It is possible for the ball to be loose and yet be place kicked, whether as a free or scrimmage kick, but as you point out, it cannot have moved from the spot where it became loose. In NCAA if it's a scrimmage kick, the place kick must be from the possession of a teammate of the kicker.

Interestingly, in neither code is it a place kick if a player in possession of a live ball placed it himself for the kick! I never realized that before. I wonder whether that would be ruled illegally kicking the ball or a drop kick.