Talk:Onside kick

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Cleanup

this article is a mess. why not separate canadian and american rules under different headings?

Why not? Simple: because they originate in common, and have diverged in only some respects.
Something else that's bothersome is the clear-as-mud explanation about the conditions under which the onside kick is "fair game" for both teams in American football. This play is typically going to occur only when the kicking team has just scored and there is little time left on the clock and they need another score to overtake and win. They will try to kick it short, "blooping" it, and hope to recover it. They do not have to wait for a defender to touch it, they can try to grab it on the fly, like a jump ball in basketball. The only requirement is that the kick has to go 10 yards before a kicking team member can touch it. Wahkeenah 04:37, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- Actually, there is another requirement. While it's not absolutely required that the ball hit the ground, the kicking team is not allowed to interfere with an attempt by a member of the receiving team to catch it. That's another reason why most teams kick it so that it hits the ground, to prevent the possibility of that penalty.
  - Not in the NFL. [1] Wahkeenah 01:43, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    - Yes in the NFL. A player may call for a fair catch, at which point it becomes a 15 yard penalty to intefere with the fair catch. That is why teams hit it off the ground. [2] See also this Q&A session here: [3] as well as discussions elsewhere [4] and [5] In the CFL, where the fair catch does not exist, there is still the rule of no interference with the receiving team attemping to catch after punts, though not kickoffs.
    - Also, the online NFL Digest of Rules is not the official Rulebook. See here [6] - "Mike Pereira, the NFL's director of officiating, told the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday that the game's officials failed to apply Rule 10, Section 1, Article 4, which says that on that type of an onside kick, the receiving team must be given the chance to catch the ball if the ball does not touch the ground."
The link the 23% success ratio on nfl.com is broken, probably since they re-did the site. I can't find that number anywhere, and footballoutsiders.com looked at some numbers and came up with 15%. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pope (talk • contribs) 20:35, 9 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No discussion of "surprise" onside kicks ... which are much more successful (statistically) although I don't have the statistics. An explanation of those would be nice, as would the success breakdown for surprise/non-surprise. 66.67.121.171 01:28, 23 October 2007 (UTC)SN14534[reply]

No clue

I'm an football fan wit an intermediate understanding of the rules of the game. I simply have no clue what this article is talking about! Could someone with more football knowledge please reformat this article to make it more clear? This is very confusing as it currently stands! A few more specific comments: How does an onside kick differ from a regular kick off? Why doesn't the receiving team simply decline to touch the ball and take possesion wherever the ball comes to rest?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.184.251 (talk) 05:02, 24 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]