Tom Higgins
CFL.ca
Here are three remarkable things you may not know about the 2010 CFL regular season, as we gear up for its final weekend: Forty-five per cent of our games have been decided by seven points or less. Forty-five per cent have also been decided in the last three minutes, either by a winning score or a late defensive stand. And in 25 per cent of our games, the team that was trailing after three quarters, came back to win.
All of these factors mean there’s an excellent chance you’re going to see a team attempt to execute an onside kick late in the game, either as final playoff spots are determined this weekend, or during the playoffs or Grey Cup.
It’s one of the most exciting plays in football, but it can also be one of the most misunderstood. Here are some of things you should know:
• If any player on the kicking team is over the 35 yard line ahead of the kick (or wherever the kickoff is to take place from), an offside penalty is called, and the play is repeated after a five yard penalty or the receiving team can decline the penalty if they gain possession of the ball.
• Barring that, everyone on the kicking team is onside (behind the ball when it is kicked), so any player on the kicking team can recover the kick-off just as any player on the receiving team can field the kick-off..
• The kick-off has to travel ten yards before the kicking team can attempt to recover it, unless a player on the receiving team chooses to attempt to field the ball before it travels ten yards.
• If a player on the receiving team chooses to attempt to field the kick before it travels ten yards, and he mishandles the ball, the ball is live and players from either team can attempt to recover it.
• If the kick travels ten yards, or a member of the receiving team has touched the ball before it travels ten yards, both teams are equally entitled to try to recover the kick.
• While members of the kicking team have an equal right to go for the ball, they cannot physically prevent a member of the receiving team from fielding the ball. For instance, they can’t knock a member of the receiving team down so he can’t field the kick.
• Remember, though, that the receiving team’s members can block on a kickoff return, when the ball is in the air. That means members of the receiving team can physically block a member of the kicking team before he gets to the ball.
• If the ball travels out of bounds, and neither a member of the receiving team or the kicking team has touched it, it will be ruled an illegal kickoff and a penalty will be assessed to the kicking team.
• If there is a scramble for the ball after it travels ten yards, or after a member of the receiving team attempts to field it before it travels ten yards, and it subsequently travels out of bounds, possession is awarded to the team that touched the ball last before it went out of bounds.
As with so many situations in our great game, there is a lot for the officiating crew to consider on an attempted onside kick-off, and it all happens in a matter of a few seconds, at an absolutely critical point in the game. But that’s what makes officiating such an exciting challenge, and it’s one of those things that makes us all fans of our tremendous game.
