#Punt October 12

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American vernacular includes a number of references to sport terminology including the word PUNT.

Punting in football or in soccer means to kick a ball with the top of the foot. This act is performed by dropping the ball with your hands and kicking it before it hits the ground.

What punting often refers to in conversations is to pass off a problem to someone else. An example would be “I am going to punt the decision on giving you a raise to the home office“.

In American football punting occurs when a team believes they cannot score in the final down or their chances of making another first down are low. They therefore decide to kick the ball to the other team in an attempt to put the ball deep inside the opponent’s own territory. In business, punting refers to when an organization chooses to give up or defer an idea or a strategy because they don’t feel they can “win”.

Double Punt

Often times when the decision comes from the Head Coach or Supervisor to PUNT things might go wrong. When they go awry many people on the sidelines and so called experts criticize the decision or even execution. Sometimes those people are wrong. That was the case on October 7th when Pete Carrol the Seattle Seahawk’s coach ordered P Michael Dickson to PUNT the ball to the LA Rams. When Dickson PUNTED the ball it got blocked by the Rams. What he did next immediately had people reacting it was not legal or permissible. He went ahead recovered the ball and PUNTED it a second time.

NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira initially said this was not legal, and Fox Sports announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman thought this would result in a penalty.

Well they were wrong.

Go to this link to watch what happened.

Often when a leadership decision is made to PUNT it comes from up above. The people responsible for implementing that decision occasionally execute it differently then expected. Michael Dickson wound up PUNTING the ball 68 yards in a manner we may never see again.