Thread: safety or touchback?

Hello everyone,

Can anyone please answer a question?
In the Vikings vs Bears game Chicago was punting, Minnesota's returner Charles Gordon attempted to block Chicago players, but football bounced and touched him, suddenly becoming a live ball in process. Ball bounced into end zone and Bears recovered it for a touchdown. My question is... What would it be if Gordon would manage to get the ball in his own end-zone - would it be safety or a touchback?

"RussianNorman" wrote:

Hello everyone,

Can anyone please answer a question?
In the Vikings vs Bears game Chicago was punting, Minnesota's returner Charles Gordon attempted to block Chicago players, but football bounced and touched him, suddenly becoming a live ball in process. Ball bounced into end zone and Bears recovered it for a touchdown. My question is... What would it be if Gordon would manage to get the ball in his own end-zone - would it be safety or a touchback?

It would be a safety. Even if the touch happens in the endzone, Gordon would have had to bring it out beyond the line.

Yeh and if the returner claims for a
fair catch but in the last moment he doesn´t intend to catch and leave the ball bounces
in bounds ,without touching it
,is it considered
a live ball or just a penalty ?
???

"El" wrote:

Yeh and if the returner claims for a
fair catch but in the last moment he doesn´t intend to catch and leave the ball bounces

in bounds ,without touching it
,is it considered
a live ball or just a penalty ?
???

The returner had no requirement to make a play on the ball after signaling fair catch, it's a fairly common practice for the returner to signal for a fair catch deep in the red zone and let the ball sail over their head.
It's also fairly common for the returner to take the opportunity to put a hard block on the nearest gunner to stop them from attempting to down the ball inside the 5.
The mistake Gordon made was going too deep.
Most of the time the returner won't step inside the 10 yard line, Gordon was on about the 5 yard line which left him too close to where the ball landed.

"BleedinPandG" wrote:

"El" wrote:

Yeh and if the returner claims for a
fair catch but in the last moment he doesn´t intend to catch and leave the ball bounces

in bounds ,without touching it
,is it considered
a live ball or just a penalty ?
???

The returner had no requirement to make a play on the ball after signaling fair catch, it's a fairly common practice for the returner to signal for a fair catch deep in the red zone and let the ball sail over their head.
It's also fairly common for the returner to take the opportunity to put a hard block on the nearest gunner to stop them from attempting to down the ball inside the 5.
The mistake Gordon made was going too deep.
Most of the time the returner won't step inside the 10 yard line, Gordon was on about the 5 yard line which left him too close to where the ball landed.

gracias