Football Queston: Are you down .....

[Wildcat Larry]

.... if you knee touches an opposing player that is on his back on the ground?

What brings this up? Well, watching the Ohio State - Michigan State game, in the last few minutes of the game, the MSU quarterback fumbled the ball on the goal line by my view of what happened. However, the refs (even after a review) said that he was down before the fumble.In reference to the above question, he had control of the ball when he was falling over the lineman on the ground, but the ball was out before any part of him touched the ground.

Then, of course, there's the possibility that I just didn't see it right (not the greatest eyes on the planet).

[MurphyLee]

No I don't think so.You see running backs roll across a defender all the time and keep going so I think the knee has to touch ground.

[Wildcat Larry]

Did anybody else see this play from the OSU-MSU game? My eyes often play tricks on me, but I would have sworn the MSU quarterback fumbled the ball long before his knew touched the ground.

[lighthouse]

I just got off the phone with an X- College and now anNFL official. Here is his explaination.

In order for a player to be ruled down, some part of his body other than his hand or foot must touch the ground. The only difference between college and pro is, in college when a player is down when they hit the ground for any reason, and in the pros, they have to be touched while down.

An example could be, a ball carrier can actually crawl over offensive or defensive players who are on the ground, into the endzone for a TD, as long as he doesn't touch the ground with something other than a hand or foot.

Hope this helps.

[Wildcat Larry]

That being the case, then I think an incorrect call was made in the OSU-MSU game, then. Of course, it didn't make any difference in the game because OSU had a good punt return after that play and went in for a score about 3 plays later, anyway. It's jus that they should have had the ball on the goal line about 6 plays earlier. :?