fair catch

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A catch of a kicked ball by a receiving player who has signaled the intention not to run with the ball and who may not be hit if making no attempt to advance the ball after catching it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• (Football) A catch made by a player on side who makes a prescribed signal that he will not attempt to advance the ball when caught. He must not then be interfered with.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun American football A uncontested catch on a kicking play, after the receiver waves his hand to indicate that he will not run with the ball, assuring that he will not be tackled on catching it.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun (American football) a catch of a punt on the fly by a defensive player who has signalled that he will not run and so should not be tackled