While watching the Ira football team take on the White Deer Bucks in the area round of the playoffs last Friday, in what turned out to be a devastating second half that ultimately ended the Bulldogs’ season, the Bucks utilized an onside kick strategy that blew my mind.
On just about every kick-off, the Bucks’ kicker would kick the ball so that it would roll and then bounce high up into the air, causing chaos and giving his teammates a chance to recover the ball. They never kicked it deep and I assume they have not kicked it deep in any of their games this season
It was what happened after the ball bounced up into the air that shocked me.
White Deer had four players on the side of the field where the ball was kicked to and one player had a very simple job — block the Bulldog closest to the ball and keep him from receiving the kick. But that’s not what caught my eye. What really surprised me was that the White Deer player not only blocked who I believe was Ira senior Brayden White, but delivered a full-blown, shoulder-lowered blow two or three seconds before the ball even reached him.
I stood there bewildered at this. This can’t be legal right? Utilizing your opponent’s focus on a bouncing onside kick to blindside him?
As I studied this play over the past week, I learned the kick is termed a “pop-up” kick and is something that has recently been recognized as a play that can result in injuries. An article written by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), an organization responsible for the rulebooks for most sports in several northern states, gave multiple examples for a defenseless player, one being “a kickoff or punt returner attempting to catch or recover a kick, or one who has completed a catch or recovery and has not had time to protect himself or has not clearly become a ball carrier.”
With the way the ball carries on these pop-up kicks, I believe it is safe to assume the receiving team player approaches it the same way he would approach a pass from a quarterback: His focus is on the ball in the air and he becomes a defenseless player as he goes up to catch the ball.
Which means, by the rulebook, he is a defenseless player and a hit on him should result in a targeting penalty. At least that’s the way I interpret the rule.
Had this play been called targeting, White Deer would not have recovered two of its onside kick attempts and Ira would have had more chances with the ball. While I do not think it would have changed the outcome of the game, seeing the way this particular play put young football players in unnecessary danger caught my attention.
The “pop-up” kick has already been identified as a play that will be flagged by the NFHS (as of 2018), but I found nothing prohibiting it in the Texas University Interscholastic League’s rule book. I believe that needs to change.
If the result of this play is players taking blindside hits while trying to field bouncing footballs, and the targeting penalty is already a thing, then it should apply in these situations as well.
Reed Graff is the sports editor for the Snyder Daily News. Comments about his column may be sent to sports@snyderdailynews.com