Talk:Onside kick

message: 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.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.179.3.43 (talk) 05:32, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Cleanup

message: 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)
thread_title: No clue

message: Deleted an erroneous portion of the article.  The portion I deleted confused kickoffs with punts.  The punting team cannot catch a punt and retain possession unless a member of the receiving team touches the ball.  If no member of the receiving team touches the ball and a member of the punting team touches it, the play is dead and the receiving team takes possession at that spot.  This apparently is what the sentence I deleted refers to.  However, a kickoff is a live ball, and either team can catch it and retain possession.  There is no requirement for a member of the receiving team to touch the ball first in order for the kicking team to retain possession.  This happened early in the recent BCS Champ. Game, when Texas kicked off after its first field goal and retain possession of the ball when a Texas player fielded the kickoff after Alabama inexplicably failed to do so.  The restrictions here are that 1) the kicking team can't advance the ball if they field it and 2) no player on the kicking team may field the ball within 10 yards of the kickoff line.  This also answers the question above.  The only "distinction" of the onside kick is that is a kickoff kicked in such away that the kicking team has a better chance to field the ball. Vidor (talk) 21:24, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Kickoffs as live balls

message: Last week, I rewrote the Intro of this article to better explain why someone would try an onside kick and to describe, with deliberate brevity, what had to happen for it to succeed.  Two IPs that seem like different people added that the ball must travel 10 yards.  I have reverted them, noting in the first case that a complete list of constraints is listed at the start of Section 2.  Is the ten-yard clause so important as to need stating in the Intro?  Does doing so invite other rules to be brought forward until the summary ceases to be a summary?  Spike-from-NH (talk) 14:24, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: The requirement that the receiving team touch the ball is not correct.  It's actually an exception to the rule.  The ball becomes live for all teams after 10 yards. That should be in the summary. If the ball travels less than 10 yards the kicking team can't touch it.  The exception is if the receiving team touches it first.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.129.51.165 (talk) 20:36, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  New summary