This is what is hanging me up. This exemption from touching a player or game official who is out of bounds seems to hinge on the status of the ball. It reads like the ball must be in player possession to get the exemption. If a ball is not in player possession until the catch is made, I don’t see how we can use this rule for support. It has been suggested we simply ignore all of this in a spirit of fair play and common sense, and I can see the value of that, but is there rule support, casebook play, or other NFHS guidelines to go by?
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I think I see your issue. Both codes agree that a ball in
player possession is
not OB if it touches another player (or an official) that is OB. A
loose ball that touches a player or an official that is OB
is out of bounds. In the given scenario, the ball - regardless of whether it is considered to be in player possession or loose - never touches a player that is OB. The only one touching the ball is the receiver, and he is never OB. The receiver may have contacted another player OB, but that does not make the receiver OB. So, regardless of when the receiver first touched the ball, or when he finally secured a firm hold on the ball, the ball itself never touched anything OB. Ultimately, he completes the catch, and the ball is in the end zone - TD.
Yes, had the receiver been battling another player for possession of the ball and, while it was still loose, it touched one of them while that one was OB, the ball is dead at that point - no catch, incomplete pass.
Now, here is where NCAA and NF may diverge. If the receiver is
airborne - which includes when he is stepping on another player before returning to the ground - when he grasps and firmly holds the previously loose ball, in NCAA, officially, the ball is still loose. If the ball itself was to then touch a player or official that is OB, the ball would be OB, dead, no catch, incomplete pass. From what I have seen in this thread, for NF, in the same scenario, the ball may be considered in player possession, so it would not be deemed OB. Still not yet a catch and completed pass, but not OB and dead, either. Just in "limbo" until the receiver touches the ground. If his first touch of the ground is inbounds (and he fulfills the catch process), then that's a catch and a completed pass. If his first touch of the ground is OB, then no catch, incomplete pass.
Does that sound right?
Robert