Safety. All we care about is what the impetus on the ball was the last time it went into the end zone before becoming dead there. The last time the ball went into the end zone, the impetus was A4’s punt. So Team A is responsible for the ball being behind their own goal line, therefore it’s a safety.
All true. But, I want to offer a slight clarification, because the way it is today, wasn’t always. Today, impetus CAN be changed in the end zone. You know that, and I know that, and strict reading of your statement - as is should be - says that. But, some folks might (incorrectly) interpret the part of your statement, “…the last time it went into the end zone before becoming dead there…” as meaning impetus imparted on the ball
in the field of play before crossing the goal line into the end zone, where it becomes dead. Not true, today. A player of the team defending a goal line might fumble or pass the ball, or a player of either team might bat or kick the ball, while it is in an end zone, and the live ball then travels into the field of play where it then rebounds, or is deflected or muffed, and travels back behind that goal line, where it becomes dead. The fumble, pass, kick, or bat in the end zone is the impetus on the ball when it becomes dead. The key element here is that the ball travelled into the field of play where it then traveled back across the goal line, where it then became dead. It is that last crossing from the field of play into the end zone that assigns impetus to the action imparted on the ball while it was in the end zone. As long as no other action on the ball occurs while it is in the field of play, to which impetus can be assigned, then the impetus is with the action on it before it left the end zone.
That is the only way that impetus can be changed in the end zone. When a defending team player intercepts an opponent’s pass or fumble, or catches/recovers an opponent’s kick in his own end zone, the impetus is from the opponent’s action that put the ball from the field of play into the end zone. If that defending team player then fumbles or passes the ball backward, and it goes out of bounds from the end zone, or becomes dead in his team’s possession behind the goal line (without crossing into the field of play), the result is touchback, because the impetus is with the opposing team. Under those circumstances, impetus cannot be changed in the end zone, even though a player of the team in possession fumbled, passed, kicked, or batted the ball.
An illegal pass, illegal kick, or illegal bat (of a grounded ball) by the defending team (and the ball does not travel into the field of play and return into the end zone) does not change the impetus on the ball, but they are fouls. Being in the end zone, the penalty for those fouls will result in a safety, so impetus is of no concern, at that point.
I say all of this, because, before Redding, the action of the ball traveling into the field of play from the end zone and then back into the end zone, in, and of, itself, did not affect impetus. He changed that. Not sure if Adams liked that, or not. I never had an opportunity to speak to Adams after Redding took over. I doubt that he did. The concept that impetus could never be changed in the end zone was considerably simpler, albeit for the once-in-a-career incident.
