North Texas’s fake fair catch-turned-punt return touchdown has been a viral sensation from the moment it happened this weekend. My own poorly-shot-from-my-own-TV clip of it has been retweeted a record (for me) 2,800 times and counting, and it’s since made the leap to far more important avenues, such as NBC’s Football Night in America pre-game show, ABC’s Good Morning America and your mom’s Facebook feed.
And it’s easy to see why. Keegan Brewer and the Mean Green pulled off something none of us have ever seen before, at least not that smoothly and successfully.
Now THAT'S a perfectly executed trick play 👌 #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/YR3pKyyDaH
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 15, 2018
However, some of the conversation spawned from that play is how the NCAA will (or should) make a fake fair catch illegal. As the NCAA efforts to make the game safer and protect defenseless player, some poor punt returner was soon destined to be drilled by an overzealous gunner looking to ensure he doesn’t get made a fool of like his Razorback colleagues.
And then on Tuesday morning, Tommy Craft of the ESPN Radio affiliate in Little Rock tweeted the NCAA was considering doing exactly that, as soon as this weekend.
Was told earlier today that NCAA FB Rules committee is considering a rule amendment possibly as soon as this weekend to close any loophole that would allow a Punt Return similar to UNT’s 90 yd score vs ARK
— Tommy Craft (@tommycraftespn) September 17, 2018
However, ESPN.com’s Kyle Bonagura quoted an NCAA spokesman saying no such rule was being considered.
NCAA spokesman on the report of a possible rule change related to the North Texas punt return: "I’ll debunk the rumor ... There is no rules change being considered."
— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) September 18, 2018
It’s not clear exactly how you could outlaw a fake fair catch. Would refs have to penalize live punt returners who don’t immediately start running upon catching the ball?
Anyway, considering the origin of the report came from Little Rock, it seems like this rumor may have been some wishful thinking from someone smarting from being on the business end of a viral play.
