The rule allows a player receiving a punt to catch the ball without the threat of being tackled immediately upon catching it. To signal a fair catch, the receiver must wave one arm above their ...

The fair catch rule usually applies to punts, kickoffs, and even free kicks (like after a safety). If the signal happens in the end zone, it’s a touchback, and the team gets the ball at the 25 ...

An invalid fair catch can happen a few ways, but the key definition in this case is the first: "An invalid signal is any waving signal by a player of Team B that does not meet the requirements of ...

That means even if a kicker boots the ball short of the end zone, the returner can signal for a fair catch and still get the benefit of a touchback. Previously, the player would have had to return ...

until the officials got involved. They flagged Iowa punt returner Cooper DeJean for an invalid fair catch signal and what looked like a miraculously ugly Hawkeye victory became a loss to the ...

Offsides is offsides. False start's a false start. A hold is a hold. Invalid fair catch signal is an invalid fair catch signal," Fleck said. With less than two minutes left and the Gophers leading ...

He didn't raise his arm above his head in a traditional fair catch signal. DeJean fielded the punt at the 46, pivoted inches from the sideline and then cut across the field to the end zone for a ...

Replay ruled that DeJean waving Iowa blockers away from the ball constituted a fair catch, as explained on the broadcast by the rules analyst, which meant the play was dead the moment he touched ...

Two weeks after the controversial invalid fair catch signal call in the Minnesota-Iowa football game, a Hawkeye fan holds a sign commenting on the call during the Iowa-Northwestern -game at ...

A month after Cooper DeJean's punt return for a touchdown was called back because he was found on video review to have made an invalid fair-catch signal late in a 12-10 loss to Minnesota ...