Chiefs hot-potato kickoff was ruled a safety, but is that the correct call?

Earlier this week, my colleague Mark Schultz was a guest on a podcast and said, “whenever they kick the ball, weird things can happen.” That is an understatement after a second quarter kickoff in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars kicked off to the Chiefs and the ball lands in the end zone. Chiefs returner Deneric Prince assumes the play is dead — except that’s last year’s rule! The ball is still live and either team can recover, which has Mecole Hardman race in to down the ball in the end zone. Since the ball landed in the end zone, under the new rule this is a touchback to the 30-yard line.

After the ball was spotted, there was a crew discussion. Was this a touchback, or is it a safety? Are there other possible outcomes?

When Hardman gained possession of the ball, he was in the end zone but the ball was in the field of play. Therefore, the ball was no longer a kick at the 1-yard line, and Hardman is responsible for that ball crossing the line, not the Jaguars. (In the rulebook terminology, Hardman’s act means the Chiefs are charged with providing the impetus to put the ball in the end zone.)

Eventually, replay official Tyler Cerimeli intervened, because this was subject to a booth review anyway, since it happened inside the 2-minute warning. After review, the touchback was reversed to a safety. This is a similar situation to a play at the beginning of the 2013 season for the Titans. On that kickoff, Darius Reynaud, while standing in the end zone, secured the ball that was in the field of play, provided the impetus into the end zone, took a knee, and the Titans were trailing 2-0, three seconds into the season.

But we know weird things can happen, and there is actually a third possible ruling on the play. Because in this example Reynaud kneels after the ball crosses the goal line, and Hardman was kneeling when possession was established.

My initial impression was this was Chiefs ball at the 1-yard line. Possession is established when a player (1) has control of the ball, (2) has two feet or a body part other than a hand down, and then (3) performs an act common to the game or at minimum has the time to do so. Hardman completes elements 1 and 2, and his picking up and pulling the ball into the end zone is the third element that establishes possession. Once those elements are complete, the possession is deemed to have initiated where the ball was at the completion of the second element. An argument can be made that the ball is dead before it was pulled into the end zone, because Hardman was kneeling. In fact, in the discussion on the field, one official even seems to say, “but the ball is dead, right?”.

After I discussed it with a former on-field official, there is a reason why this isn’t ruled down at the 1. According to Rule 7-2-1(d), the ball is dead “when a runner declares himself down by … falling to the ground or kneeling, and clearly making no immediate effort to advance.” So, in order to establish the fact that Hardman is not making an effort to advance, that takes an element of time, which means the ball is still live when brings it back into the end zone. (A quarterback who kneels after receiving the snap kills the play immediately, but that is a different situation, and has a separate entry under Rule 7-2-1.)

Eliminating that possibility of being downed at the 1, the safety is the correct call in this case. Also, since there was possession in the field of play, the game clock was adjusted from 26 seconds to 25 seconds. If the ball bounced back into the end zone and was recovered for a touchback, the clock does not run.

One more point of clarity: On the Jaguars broadcast, the announcers were discussing whether the ball was touched in the field of play prior to possession. Touching the ball is irrelevant in this case, because it is a free ball, and merely touching it does not change its status as a kicked ball. (Also, not a punt.) Once a ball is kicked, it remains a kick until it is possessed or the ball becomes dead.