From an NFHS official, same question. Since he's not touching the ground, has he established possession? And if not, can he legally throw the football?
And can we stop Beagle from coming up with any more wild hypotheticals?
According to the NFHS rule book, a kick remains a kick until possession is gained. Possession is not gained until a ball is caught or recovered when the receiver is contacting the ground. It's not a 'catch'.
2-24-2 KICK A kick ends when a player gains possession or when the ball becomes dead while not in player possession.
2-4-1 CATCH A catch is the act of establishing player possession of a live ball which is in flight, and first contacting the ground inbounds while maintaining possession of the ball...
Thus, The 'pass' is part of the kick. And it's not a real pass either, because a pass, by definition, can only be thrown once the ball is in player possession. And there is no player possession, so no 'pass', just part of the kick.
2-31-1 PASSING: Passing the ball is throwing a ball that is in player possession.
In my understanding of the NFHS rules, if the defense declined the penalty, this would be a legal field goal.
And touching of the ball by an offensive player behind the line of scrimmage during a field goal attempt is ignored.
The only penalty I can find is: 9-4-3e ILLEGAL PERSONAL CONTACT - No player or non player shall position himself on the shoulders or body of a teammate or opponent to gain an advantage.
I'm just trying to follow this ludicrous play in the rule book, and as far as I can tell, this is my understanding.
Now if the player is standing on a towel, technically they aren't on the ground, right? I don't see anywhere in the rules where a towel is considered part of the ground. Saying that, in a real game, I'm not a moron, I would rule a pass that bounced off a towel on the ground incomplete. But do I have rules support? lol lol lol