[DC 86]

You can fair catch a kickoff in the NFL, but you get possession at the spot of the catch. The NFL didn't adopt the fairly recent college rule change that makes a kickoff fair catch inside the 25 a touchback. That was the question.

I don’t think you can fair catch a squib kick. Anymore than you could fair catch an on side kick.  You certainly can grab it and stay down , giving yourself up.

Of course a successful fair catch requires catching the kick before it hits the ground. So a typical squib or attempted onside kick won't be fair catchable because the kicker tries to make it bounce off the ground right away.

You may be right on kickoffs.

But I'm pretty sure on a punt, the returner can signal for a fair catch, and then catch it after one bounce.  Down right there.  Clock stopped.  I just assumed the same could apply to kickoffs, though Lex's point about onsides kicks is a good one.

I don't think it's complicated. Any time a player has possession of the ball he can take a knee to end the play. On a change of possession the clock stops so taking a knee on a kickoff return or punt return stops the clock. You can't fair catch a ball that's hit the ground.

The thing about the squib is that unless it bounces straight at a player and is caught cleanly it's going to take a good amount of time off the clock. A good kicker (and NFL kickers practice this) aims for an unmanned area and hits it low with topspin so that it bounces more than once and is sometimes hard to catch cleanly because of how the ball reacts unpredictably off the ground. Definitely would have been the right play last night.

Also, the clock stops when the referee calls for it to stop, so even that additional second (or two?) after a player takes a knee could have made a difference last night. That's assuming that whoever comes up with it actually takes a knee immediately instead of instinctively trying to return it.

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But I'm pretty sure on a punt, the returner can signal for a fair catch, and then catch it after one bounce.  Down right there.  Clock stopped.  I just assumed the same could apply to kickoffs, though Lex's point about onsides kicks is a good one.

The best way to explain this is to say that once a punt or kickoff hits the ground the fair catch rules don't apply any more. In the case of a punt the covering team can down the ball, but they can't recover it since you can only recover a muff or fumbled punt. However, on a kickoff the coverage team can recover a loose ball just like on an onside kick. You can call for a fair catch on a kickoff but once the ball hits the ground it's no different from any other kickoff, the fair catch has been voided and the ball can be recovered by either team.

But the overriding point is that in either case if the return team catches the ball after a bounce the play is automatically blown dead since you can't attempt to advance after calling for a fair catch (it's a penalty to try to do so), however the return team has no fair catch protection after the ball hits the ground so the covering team is entitled to try to get the ball, meaning that a scramble for the ball may take significant time off the clock if the return team doesn't immediately gain clean possession following the ball hitting the ground.

[DC 86]

You can fair catch a kickoff in the NFL, but you get possession at the spot of the catch. The NFL didn't adopt the fairly recent college rule change that makes a kickoff fair catch inside the 25 a touchback. That was the question.

I don’t think you can fair catch a squib kick. Anymore than you could fair catch an on side kick.  You certainly can grab it and stay down , giving yourself up.

Of course a successful fair catch requires catching the kick before it hits the ground. So a typical squib or attempted onside kick won't be fair catchable because the kicker tries to make it bounce off the ground right away.

You may be right on kickoffs.

But I'm pretty sure on a punt, the returner can signal for a fair catch, and then catch it after one bounce.  Down right there.  Clock stopped.  I just assumed the same could apply to kickoffs, though Lex's point about onsides kicks is a good one.

I don't think it's complicated. Any time a player has possession of the ball he can take a knee to end the play. On a change of possession the clock stops so taking a knee on a kickoff return or punt return stops the clock. You can't fair catch a ball that's hit the ground.

The thing about the squib is that unless it bounces straight at a player and is caught cleanly it's going to take a good amount of time off the clock. A good kicker (and NFL kickers practice this) aims for an unmanned area and hits it low with topspin so that it bounces more than once and is sometimes hard to catch cleanly because of how the ball reacts unpredictably off the ground. Definitely would have been the right play last night.

Also, the clock stops when the referee calls for it to stop, so even that additional second (or two?) after a player takes a knee could have made a difference last night. That's assuming that whoever comes up with it actually takes a knee immediately instead of instinctively trying to return it.

---

But I'm pretty sure on a punt, the returner can signal for a fair catch, and then catch it after one bounce.  Down right there.  Clock stopped.  I just assumed the same could apply to kickoffs, though Lex's point about onsides kicks is a good one.

The best way to explain this is to say that once a punt or kickoff hits the ground the fair catch rules don't apply any more. In the case of a punt the covering team can down the ball, but they can't recover it since you can only recover a muff or fumbled punt. However, on a kickoff the coverage team can recover a loose ball just like on an onside kick. You can call for a fair catch on a kickoff but once the ball hits the ground it's no different from any other kickoff, the fair catch has been voided and the ball can be recovered by either team.

But the overriding point is that in either case if the return team catches the ball after a bounce the play is automatically blown dead since you can't attempt to advance after calling for a fair catch (it's a penalty to try to do so), however the return team has no fair catch protection after the ball hits the ground so the covering team is entitled to try to get the ball, meaning that a scramble for the ball may take significant time off the clock if the return team doesn't immediately gain clean possession following the ball hitting the ground.