Watching the Packers - Vikings game, my seven year old son asked me if a player (punt returner) may kick the ball with his feet (before it hits the ground), and then catch it. Would that be allowed?
If it hits their foot and bounces up into the air they can catch it and run with it. If they don’t catch it the other team can recover it as a fumble or muff.
I’m pretty sure kicking the ball on purpose once its in play is a penalty. Not sure why returning a punt would make that any different. But then the rules of football make the tax-code seem transparent.
Thanks! But consider that the ball didn’t hit the foot as much as the foot deliberately kicked ball up into the air, and then the player took it with his hands…? Would it still be OK?
EDIT: My reply was to Bijou Drains, before I read Simplicio’s.
Wouldn’t that just be considered a punt? I know that it would in the Canadian game.
It’s not easy to kick the ball up to your hands in that case, it’s coming down with a lot of force if it’s a high punt.
It is legal to kick a ball that is in play… One of the places that it is useful is on a blocked punt… Instead of trying to scoop up or fall on the ball, kicking it will often gain your team more yards… Very rare to see though… for the most part players are coached to fall on any loose ball immediately…
According to the NFL rules its illegal to deliberatly kick a “loose ball”. A loose ball is one that isn’t in possession of either team which I would assume would include after a punt, blocked or otherwise, though again, I’m a pretty casual football fan so maybe I’m misunderstanding.
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I’m going to say no. IIRC, there is an obscure rule (but something tells me it was used this year) where the person that receives a punt can immediately punt it back to the other team giving them possession back. If the returner kicks the ball then catches it, I believe it would be the original punting team’s ball at the spot of the catch.
Legal in Canadian football (see the CFL thread here a couple of weeks ago, about the end of the Montreal / Toronto game, where the ball was kicked back and forth several times).
In general, not legal in American football…as Simplicio notes, it’s pretty much illegal for anyone to kick a ball other than in the act of an offensive team executing a kick or punt play.
Looked it up. I was thinking of a fair catch kick.
If that’s what I’m thinking of, it’s a separate play. The returner signals for a fair catch, and the receiving team may, on the next play, attempt a free kick. It’s a rule which is used very rarely.
I played Canadian rules my entire “career”… I always thought that was a rule that was common to both sets of rules… guess I was wrong…
Link to that thread: Only in the CFL: Three Kicks to End the Game; Results in Touchdown & Victory for Als!
Link to the video: Just for kicks.
And, for another example of crazy ball antics in the CFL, check out this video of a near-disaster on a routine punt catch: What happens when the ball is frozen solid and the field is a skating rink. Freeman saved the game for the Riders, who advance to the Grey Cup.