Talk:Kickoff (gridiron football)

Spelling
Can we get a consensus on spelling? This article is named "kickoff", but each reference inside the article includes a hyphen, making it "kick-off". I don't really care either way, I just think it should be uniform. For reference, the Oxford English Dictionary uses "kickoff" and does not include "kick-off". —bbatsell ¿?  18:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)


 * The NFL uses "kickoff" (as a noun) so let's use that. Except when it is used as a verb, when it should be "kick off" (no hyphen). Sprkee 19:39, 2 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree. I'm going to go ahead and change the article page; if others disagree, feel free to revert and bring it to the talk page.  Thanks! —bbatsell  ¿?  19:55, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Question
What happens if the ball does not go 10 yards and does not go out of bounds?

I saw a game tonite (high school) where the team kicking the free kick after the safety missed the ball. Actually the kicker's foot grazed the ball causing the bal to move a few inches. Everyone sort of stood around and looked at the ball and the play was blown dead. The refs then decided that the ball now belonged to the receiving team on the 20. I wasn't sure that was correct, but I can't find out the rules. Cmsheaff 04:03, 22 September 2007 (UTC)cmsheaff


 * Do you mean that the receiving team got the ball on their own 20, or on the kicking team's 20? If it was at their own 20, then the ruling was incorrect.  If it was at the other team's 20, then it was correct, at least according to NCAA rules.  Had anyone from the kicking team touched the ball, it would have been illegal touching and the receiving team could take the penalty and receive the ball at the spot of the foul (which in this case would have been a few inches beyond the 20).  Since no one touched it, and it came to rest, the ball was declared dead and the receiving team recovers at the spot it became dead.  You can read the NCAA's rule book here [PDF] and the applicable rules are on pages 87 and 88.
 * Also, for future reference, Wikipedia has a WP:REFDESK where you can ask all sorts of questions like this. Article discussion pages are designed to discuss the article or its contents.  Hope this helps, — bbatsell   ¿?   ✍  04:39, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair Catch
A fair catch on a kickoff is legal, but not at all common, or except in an extremely unlikely situation, poor strategy. However the article seems to indicate that this is a common method for the resolution of a kickoff, which is not true. Additionally the article seems overly wordy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.222.130.18 (talk) 06:51, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Reception (American football) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 07:59, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

So exactly how is the ball kicked ??
Amazing that I can't find this basic info in the article. Is it from a tee, held, drop-kicked, punted ? Rcbutcher (talk) 04:51, 24 August 2015 (UTC)