Illegal Touching...Except

A couple of months ago, I said:

If you watch any football, you've seen players commit the foul of illegal touching many times each game. The officials do not throw any flags, though they do signify that foul by touching both hands to the tops of their shoulders. You don't think of it as illegal touching, because we call it "downing" a punt.

However, illegal touching has one fantastic effect. Once a player on the punting team touches a punted ball that has not made contact with a return team player, no matter what happens afterwards, the return team can always elect to have the ball at the spot of illegal touching. If the punting team touches and controls the ball, the official takes an "official timeout", and awards the return team the ball at the spot of the touching.

It's the other circumstance that every special teams player in the league should know by heart. If the punting team touches the ball and does not control it, there is absolutely no reason why the nearest player should not attempt to pick up the ball and run with it. Throw laterals willy-nilly down the field. Make every attempt to score. This should be done any time the punt is shanked and hits a punt team player in the back, or any time a player non-chalantly touches a ball and walks away from it. After the result of the play, the return team can elect to either take the ball at the spot of illegal touching, or decline the foul and take the result of the return.

In tonight's Monday Night game between the Bears and Vikings, the Bears punted to the Vikings. The ball struck a Bears defender and a Viking wisely grabbed the ball off the bounce and took off down the sideline for a bonus 25 yards or so.

Unfortunately, there is something I forgot to mention in my previous post. If the return man signals for a fair catch and then fails to catch the ball for a reason other than kick catch interference, the return team may not advance the ball past the point where the fair catch would have occurred. This trumps the illegal touching.