NFHS: wrong type of free kick

[Suudy]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

On 1, I suspect K is going to decline the penalty for illegal kick and take the ball (or the TD if it rolled INTO the endzone).

But this is the difficulty Bob is talking about. 2-24-2 says that a kick ends only when in player possession or when the ball becomes dead not in player possession. And a kick becomes dead as soon as it breaks the goal line (4-2-2d.1). So it can't be a TD.

But which is it? A safety or a TB? I think most of us have learned that a kick is a kick is a kick until it is no longer a kick. And the illegal kick by R, though a new force, does not change the status of the kick. And 6-3-1b says any scrimmage kick that breaks the plane of the goal is a touchback.

I'd go with TB on this. The basic spot is the 20, and the foul occurred at the 5, so we go 1st and 10 for R from the R 2 1/2.

[ajmc]

I think what you have is a basic choice. If there was a foul committed during a free kick, it's going to be a loose ball foul. The offended team has the standard choice; accept the foul or decline it and accept the result of the play.

A foul during the kick is a loose ball foul, since this kick would up breaking the plane of R's goal, it's a Touchback, if the penalty is declined it would be
1st/10 for R at the 20 YL. If the penalty is accepted, the basic spot is the previous spot, march the appropriate distance off against the offending team, and repeat the down.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: The problem is that the Fed used a general statement about treating illegal kicks as fumbles when what they really meant is that an attempted scrimmage kick from beyond the NZ or a kick after a COP are treated as fumbles. That way, you don't apply legal kick rules to these two types of kick. Other illegal kicks of loose balls retain whatever status they had prior to the illegal kick. So illegally kicking a ball that is loose as a legal kick (my play #1) continues to be treated as a legal kick--not a fumble. So when it crosses R's goal ine, of course it's a touchback. Likewise, illegally kicking a forward pass in flight (my play #2) is still treated as a forward pass--not a fumble. So when it hits the ground, it's dead as an incomplete pass.

This is one of the reasons why the NCAA distinguishes between an illegal kick and illegally kicking a loose ball. I tried to get this changed in Fed without any luck.