An onside kick is defined as a kickoff, deliberately kicked at a short distance in an attempt by the offense to regain possession of the ball. This is done by recovering it after it has traveled forward the legally required distance of 10. This is done by kicking the ball only a short distance.
According to the official rules of the NFL, for a legal recovery of the ball by a member of the offense, the ball has to move at least 10 yards from the kickoff spot, or the ball has to have touched a player of the defense. The offense cannot move to the ball till it has crossed ten yards. The defense can move immediately after the ball is kicked.
WOW. If that had stood, this would have been one of the plays of the year. Incredible #DaBears #NFL #Touchdown #Chicago #SNF #Football pic.twitter.com/6Yi7n6d8ZJ
— Gabriel Schray (@schrayguy) December 13, 2021
The ball must touch the ground in addition to traveling 10 yards, before the offense team can take possession. Because of this, most onside kicks are kicked straight into the ground. Since 2012, receiving teams can call for a fair catch on an onside kick’s first bounce. In this case, the offense cannot touch the ball till the second bounce has occurred.
Although the ball can be recovered and possessed by the offense, they cannot advance it even if it crosses 10 yards, if it is untouched. To advance the ball, a member of the defense has to have had possession of the ball, and lose it by fumbling the ball over.
This isn’t a complete overview, but a quick explanation following a key onside on SNF today. The featured image in this article is the thumbnail of the embedded video. Thank you for visiting the Midwest Sports Network and mwsn.net. For more sports, news, and entertainment, follow us on Twitter @MWSNsports or like our page on Facebook.
