are you allowed to stand at the goal post to try to block a field goal?
You can certainly try to block a field goal in the CFL, but as a practical matter, there’s not much chance, physically, of doing so in front of the goal post - the cross piece is pretty high up.
Instead, the best way is to have a defending player get past the line in front of the kicker, and block the ball just after the kick.
NCAA rules don’t prevent this action, so, yes, you can block in this manner. However, if the ball is blocked into the field of play, it is a live ball and any player may recover and advance it. Also, in touching the ball this far downfield, the defense loses the option of having the ball at the previous spot in the case of a failed kick. If the ball is blocked out of bounds, the dead-ball spot (or touchback) will be the only option available.
Since the OP’s question has been answered, may I ask a couple?
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What is the rational for penalties in which the yardage is stepped off, and the offensive team loses the down as well? (Crossing the scrimmage line and then attempting a pass falls into this category, I think.) There doesn’t seem to be any logic for inflicting such a harsh penalty.
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If a team goes for two points after a TD and, say, the defensive team intercepts and runs it all the way back, the score is limited to two points, right? This doesn’t seem fair. You intercept the pass in the endzone and run over 100 yards for a score and your team gets just 2 points? Not nice.
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You block a field goal attempt, catch the ball before it hits the ground and run it back for a score. Does your team register 6 or 3 points?
The gods of football seem to hate the defense.
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Loss of down penalties (Illegally handing the ball forward, Illegal forward pass, Illegal kick, Planned loose ball, Illegal touching, Illegal kicking, Intentionally thowing a backwards pass out of bounds, Intentional grounding) generally are the result of play by the defense forcing the offense into a penalty, or unfair tactics by the offense to escape a bad situation. If the loss of down provision was not there, offenses might purposely commit these penalties in order to get a chance to do the play again, yardage enforcement notwithstanding.
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Try downs are played outside the normal scoring rules. There are three ways to score on a try:
Field goal - 1 point
Touchdown - 2 points (either team)
Safety - 1 point (either team)
The defense on a try does not get the opportunity to score more points than the offense can. -
A field goal is a scimmage kick, just like a punt (but with the special provisions that it can score and that the defense may take the ball at the previous spot if the kick does not score), and touchdowns scored on a scrimmage kick play (any scrimmage play) count 6 points. It is not necessary to catch the kick on the fly; a missed field goal can be recovered from a bounce or on the ground and advanced by the defense if it so chooses.
(NCAA rules)
On Q2: This can be done in college, not in the NFL, although I think it should be allowed in the pros as well… Since the offense can score a maximum of 2 points on the play, why should the defense be able to get more than that?
For Q3: It’s 6 since this is just a regular old play from scrimmage, not the magical “try” down.
Here’s the NCAA Rulebook: (800+K PDF)
http://www.ncaa.org/library/rules/2004/2004_football_rules.pdf
Does anyone have record of a one-point safety occurring on a try in a NCAA game?
Why don’t college teams try to block long field goals by using a basketball player perched under the crossbar? The 10 ft height isn’t a barrier to them, they should be able to bat down a ball that’s going to clear the crossbar by a foot or less.
It’s rather rare that a field goal crosses within 1 ft of the crossbar. And even in those cases, a basketball player in pads and a helmet will not jump as high as he can on the court. And he burns a scholarship.
I’d never be able to find a cite, but I saw it once on ESPN’s “Hidden Video”. It was in a Division III game. The defense recovered a blocked kick, then fumbled it backward into their own end zone and recovered again for a one-point safety.
This is not related to the OP, but not worth a new thread. Sorry in advance for the brief hijack.
The NCAA rule book linked to above contains this paragraph in the section describing the ball:
Rule 1, Section 3, Article 2, paragraph g: (my bolding)
This just doesn’t seem right. They’re saying that every time the ball becomes dead out by the sidelines, that a replacement ball is obtained? So when they bring te ball back to the inbounds line after such a play, that’s actually a new ball?
Tell me I’m reading that wrong…because they can’t possibly go through that many balls. This isn’t baseball, for crying out loud!
I don’t see where it says it has to be a new ball. Just a replacement one. Think of it like tennis - the balls hard to get, give them another one, then the ball person goes to get the old one ready to hand over next time. It’s just to speed things up. Football wastes so much of the game time already, you don’t want to lose any more. If it’s actually damaged or completely unavailable, then you might have to get a new one.
If I may take the radical step of returning to the OP . . .
Blocking a FG at the crossbar is illegal in both pro and college football.
Pro rules:
College rules:
Freddy the Pig got it right.
I’ve seen old NFL films where players did try to bat the ball down in front of the goal posts. I never saw anyone succeed.
Even if it were legal, it would be a risky play. On a field goal attempt, the ball is like a punt. So if the defense were to try to bat the balll down by the goalposts and suceeded, but the kicking team managed to get someone down to cover it, they could give up field position.
But it’s not legal in college or NFL football. I imagine it’s legal in the CFL because there is a greater incentive for teams in the CFL to avoid giving up singles.
As for changing footballs during a game, most teams just use two during a game and alternate them. Usually one of the officials uses the one just used to mark the ball and then the ballboy comes out to bring the official a diffferent one to place on the approporiate hash mark.
In college football, teams can bring in the ball they want for kicking. In the NFL, there are special balls reserved for kicking (they are always brand new ones that are hard as rocks). That’s why there’s one guy with a “K” on his vest and carries those balls for kicking plays.
As Dancing Fool stated, it’s not a new ball they bring in. If you watch the refs, the original ball is down where the play was called dead. The replacement ball is thrown in and then placed on the hash marks using the original ball as the point of reference. The original ball is then picked up and tossed to someone out of bounds.
I went back and double-checked the CFL Rulebook. The only thing I could find that relates to the OP is the illegal tactic of “Pyramiding”, described in Rule 7: Fouls and Penalties, Section 1, Article 3:
It seems implicit in this rule that it’s permitted to try to block a field goal or convert near the goal posts, as long as you don’t use the goal posts to get up closer to the ball.
Extra points are “extras”, and thereby don’t follow normal rules. In the NFL, as has been stated, the defense cannot score at all on a turnover from a conversion attempt.
The disparity is easily seen by the clock. Conversions do not take time off the clock, and if you score a TD with 0:00 remaining in a half, you still get to attempt the conversion, whereas you would not be allowed to attempt a FG with 0:00 remaining.
Since FG attempts require time on the clock, it is a logical conclusion that a blocked FG attempt is fair game for a TD, which it is.
The Ravens, incidentally, put a guy in the endzone on a long FG attempt within the last couple seasons, and the guy caught the FG attempt outright (it was short) and ran it back very far, possibly even for a TD. I think it was a Monday Night game, but I’m not positive.
The extra point return for a TD is only in college football. I doubt the NFL would ever adopt it. High school football doesn’t want it because plays which are long returns tend to be more prone to injuries, so they don’t want it.
As for the guy on the Ravens playing deep on a field goal that’s OK. You can pick up ones that are short. They are just like punts.
In high school football, missed field goals are like punts in such a way that I saw a kicker miss one badly and the ball rolled out of bounds at the 2. Instead of putting the ball back on the 20 (normal rule for high school ball), the ball was placed at the 2, just as if it were a coffin corner punt.
In the NCAA or NFL, such a missed field goal would be moved back.
Even though I think it’s legal, I’ve never seen it. That’s because you already have a player from the receiving team in the goal zone itself, to catch a missed field goal and run it out. Having another player stationed in front of the goal posts would cut your defensive line down to 10 players, and really reduce your chances of getting to the kicker and blocking the kick at the start, which strikes me as a much higher percentage play.
I stand corrected. I didn’t think to look for the approved ruling under rules for batting balls (I looked everywhere regarding kicks and scoring, because I was sure the ruling was in there, but, not finding it, assumed I was wrong, and it was not prohibited)
9-4-1-(b) does state:
Any player may block a scrimmage kick in the field of play or the end zone.
but, 2-10-5 “Definitions” states
Blocking a scrimmage kick is touching the ball by an opponent of the kicking team in an attempt to prevent the ball from advancing ** beyond the neutral zone ** (bolding mine).
So, by definition, a field goal cannot be blocked at the goal posts. It is illegal batting, as stated before.
(I guess this is why we always have at least 4 people on a crew. To cover up these brain farts)
It was a Sunday night game against the Broncos during the 2002 season. Chris McAllister fielded the short kick in the end zone and ran it back 107 yards for the touchdown.