Onside kick rule question

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by ajmc

The practice can cause confusion with deep officials, who may not see the initial contact with the ground, underscoring the importance of ASSIGNING the responsibility of OBSERVING the path of the ball to one of the "Up" (depending on configuration) officials, who may have the necessity of communicating with "deep" officials regarding flags thrown, that may need to be reconsidered because of the immediate ball grounding.

This is another reason Rogers gave for treating the immediate high bouncer and an airborne kick the same. It's not always easy to tell the difference since it happens so quickly.