another kickoff question

[Shad Kline]

On a kickoff if the ball hits the front endzone pylon before going out of bounds, is it a touchback or an out of bounds kick?

 

[rickref72]

This is a Touch Back. Pylon is OOB inside goalline.

 

[Shad Kline]

Well, it barely grazed it. Enough to see that it touched it from the pressbox, but hit the front edge on the outside corner.

 

[L.ESSARY]

I just had this exact thing happen this weekend and the ref called it Out of bounds! He said the the pylon is out of bounds.

 

[L.ESSARY]

In my situation the ball slowly rolled end over end and hit the pylon and stopped at that point still in bounds. Flag was thrown!

 

[Shad Kline]

Wouldn't it make more sense to put the pylon IN bounds? If its out of bounds then there has to be a judgement call of whether or not a ball crossed the plane before hitting the pylon. If it were in bounds then hitting it would be a definite indication of a touchdown, touchback or whatever the case may be.

 

[L.ESSARY]

I agree, but don't make it too simple now! haha

 

[fencewire]

Rule 4.2.3.b reads as follows.

A ball that touches a pylon is out of bounds behind the goal line.

Whether it touches the front, the back, the side or the top... it matters naught... what matters is that it touched the pylon, and in that case, it is OOB behind the goal line and would be a touchback if a kick hit the pylon.

 

[Shad Kline]

Ok thanks. Sounds like both cases (mine and Mr. Essary) they got it wrong then.

 

[oldergoat]

Just a thought. If the ball was on the ground rolling it could have hit the line just prior to hitting the pylon. If it did then hitting the pylon was not a factor in the call. Might have seen this on the field and not in Press Box.

 

[Shad Kline]

Under most circumstances I would agree, but it was in the air when it hit it and coming from an angle that it couldn't have went out of bounds first. It wasn't a game changer or anything, the difference was 10 yards on where the offense started, in a game that ended up being a 45. I was just wondering what the correct call was so that I knew in the future.

 

[rickref72]

Grazing or ever touching the pylon while it is still a live ball on a kick will cause it to become dead. So status of the ball was a kick untouched in the endzone after it hits the pylon. You have TB. not real hard but you may have had some guys that just did not know what to do with it in this case. Both cases TB.