Rules Quiz
Tough quiz: 7 calls you may never see in NFL (but how would you rule?)
4th-and-2 from the B18. Team A kicks a 35-yard field goal (ball spotted at the 25-yard line) that passes cleanly through the uprights. Before the ball touches the net, a gust of wind blows the ball back through the uprights, and the ball lands in the end zone where Player B1 immediately picks up the ball and runs to the B15-yard line where he is tackled. How do you rule and where is the ball spotted next?
[spoiler]
5. Field goal no good
Team B ball, 1st-and-10 at the B15. A field goal is good once ball touches an object beyond the uprights after going between the goalposts. In this case, the field goal is no good, and Team B gets the runback.
The closest this has come to happening in the NFL was in 2007 when Phil Dawson of the Browns kicked a field goal at the end of regulation against the Ravens. Dawson’s kick caromed off the upright and changed direction as it went through the goalposts. After it had cleared the goal opening, the ball bounced off of the support arm of the goalpost (technical term: the stanchion). The ball then returned through the goalposts and landed in the end zone. At the time, this was not a reviewable play, but this was made reviewable in the ensuing offseason.
When referee Pete Morelli and his crew determined that the ball touched the stanchion, this meant the ball had contacted an object beyond the mouth of the goal, making the ball dead and a field goal. The same applies if the ball strikes a camera mounted on the stanchion, the net behind the goalpost, or the ground: once the ball contacts an out-of-bounds object after passing fully through the mouth of the goal, the field goal is good.
Since the video for Dawson’s field goal is not working at NFL.com, here is the clip via YouTube.
[/spoiler]
