Punt returns can be some of the most electrifying plays in football. The one that occurred in an Alabama high school football game on Friday night, however, does not fall into that bucket.
With Spanish Fort and Murphy meeting in a Class 6A clash, those in attendance got to see the easiest (and shortest) punt return possible in football. Backed up on its own goal line, Murphy was punting from the end zone, and the punter made a critical mistake with pressure in his face.
The kick went straight up into the air, bounced inside the five-yard line, and came down into the arms of a Spanish Fort player at the one-yard line. All he had to do was take one step and put six points on the board.
The only way that could possibly have gotten any easier for Spanish Fort would have been for the punter to hand the ball to them in the end zone.
For those curious, the next shortest punt return I could find in recent history was Toledo's three-yard punt return against VMI in 2018. The Rockets' Cody Thompson literally caught the punt off the foot of the VMI punter at the three-yard line and walked it in for a score.
