Packers returner pulls off brilliant, bizarre play

The NFL rulebook is full of perfectly legal loopholes, if you know how to exploit them. Green Bay Packers return man Ty Montgomery did exactly that early in Sunday’s game against Detroit, and snagged his team a handy 37 yards in the process.

The Lions were kicking off to Green Bay after a field goal, and the ball drifted toward the left sideline. Montgomery stepped out of bounds, leaned back in, and touched the ball with his feet still out of bounds.

When a loose kick collides with an object out of bounds, the ball is placed on the 40. And although most of Montgomery was in bounds, his toes weren’t, and that’s enough to legally consider him “an object out of bounds.” Heads-up play to give the Packers as many as 37 yards, and they scored a touchdown just four plays later.

Rules expert Mike Pereira of Fox reveled in the heads-up play:

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.