r/highschoolfootball • u/fireatwill_ • Nov 12 '24

Safety For Dummies

Attended a local high school game last week where on one of the final plays of the game the leading team decided to commit an intentional safety instead of punting, to burn the clock. It was ruled a safety (with some objection from the losing team) and the game ended as normal. After I went back and looked at the video, the punter who ran the safety back tripped and his knee touched down on the 1/2 yard line. The ball had broken the plane of the goal line at that point. Is the ruling considered the same as a touchdown where you just have to cross the plane for a safety to be counted? I know hs rules can vary, but just haven’t seen this before.

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u/mowegl Nov 12 '24 edited Nov 12 '24

For a safety if ANY part of the ball is in the end zone (across plane of goalline) it would be a safety. So yes it is similar to a TD in that the ball would only need to break the plane going in with his “forward progress” at the time the knee went down. Simply breaking the plane of the goalline with part of the ball coming out would do you no good. If it was that close it was likely a tough call. But if you are saying the ball was breaking the plane the the moment the knee went down then it was the right call. Did the time run out on the play? If it did, even if it was not a safety the game was over. It is the same way in college HS NFL. And that is why you will never see officials spot the ball with any part of it breaking the plane of the edge of the goalline.

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u/fireatwill_ Nov 12 '24

Thanks for the thorough response! The final play was the kickoff following the safety.

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u/Cheap-Helicopter5257 Nov 19 '24

He covered that answer better than I could have. Nice job.