The N.F.L. rule book is long.
Some of its rules are simple and well known: “The game is played by two teams of 11 players each.” Some are a lot more tangled. (Could someone please explain clock runoff?)
And some are so obscure that they hardly ever come into play at all. Until they do, often spectacularly.
On Thursday night, one of these arcane rules popped up in a game, to the surprise and delight of viewers. Here’s a look at what happened, and some other times when the weirdest corners of the rule book have been dusted off.
The fair catch free-kick field goal
On Thursday night in a game against the Denver Broncos, Derius Davis of the Los Angeles Chargers made a fair catch at his own 38-yard line — meaning no one could tackle him, and his team would get the ball at the spot of the catch.
There was a penalty called against the Broncos on the play, moving the ball to Denver’s 47-yard line. And this seemingly normal set of circumstances set up a play that had not been accomplished in 48 years.
There is a rule that says that any time a team makes a fair catch, it has the right to a free kick of the ball, which the opponent is not allowed to attempt to block. Of course, this almost never comes up: Why would you give the ball away to your opponents?
But a couple factors made this situation different. The penalty put the Chargers within field-goal range, a rarity after a fair catch. And time was expiring in the half, so it was too late to go for a touchdown. So the Chargers decided to try the kick.
It was an incongruous sight: Because it was a free kick, not a traditional field goal, it looked more like a kickoff with no line of scrimmage and the defensive team standing helplessly 15 yards back.
Cameron Dicker successfully kicked it through the uprights, and the Chargers went on to win, 34-27. The last time it happened in the N.F.L. was when Ray Wersching of the San Diego Chargers successfully hit a fair catch free-kick field goal in 1976.
The drop kick
Thursday night’s strange doings notwithstanding, the traditional way to kick a field goal or extra point is by having a player hold the ball for the kicker to blast away.
But there is another legal way: the drop kick in which the kicker drops the ball and, when it bounces, he kicks it through the uprights.
Again, though, almost nobody does this. It’s a lot harder.
But in 2006, Doug Flutie of the New England Patriots — a veteran quarterback, not a kicker — wanted to try it, and an indulgent coach let him. He had been practicing, in hopes of getting a shot, and it paid off: He made it.
Ball through the quarterback’s legs
The ball is snapped and it happens to go directly through the quarterback’s legs. Well, there used to be a rule for that.
In 2007, a snap sailed through the legs of Brian Griese, the Chicago Bears quarterback. It seemed like great news for the Philadelphia Eagles. Sean Considine recovered the ball and looked headed for a touchdown. Unfortunately for the Eagles: There was a rule stating that if the ball went through the quarterback’s legs on a snap, he still had to be the first to touch it. If not, the play would be blown dead, and the offense would get a penalty instead.
“I don’t know what the intent of the rule is,” the N.F.L.’s director of officiating at the time, Art McNally, admitted after the game.
This rule was a bit too much even for the N.F.L. It was soon changed.
The out-of-bounds rule
If the ball leaves the field, that’s out of bounds. But if a player who is standing outside of the field touches a ball that is in bounds, that ball is also considered out of bounds.
The Green Bay Packers benefited from this rule in 2016. A kickoff from the Detroit Lions was bouncing around inside the Packers’ 5-yard line. Ty Montgomery of the Green Bay Packers dived on it and the play ended. Guess it’s the Packers’ ball at their own 3, right?
Nope, Montgomery’s feet were out of bounds when he fell on the ball. Player out of bounds, ball out of bounds. The Lions got the ball at their own 40 instead, just as if the ball had gone out of bounds on its own.
The prop celebration
The N.F.L. has loosened up its rules on celebrations in recent years, and players have responded, often with silly dances.
But some things are still not allowed. Celebrations that might seem offensive, for example, or the mimicking of weapons.
And props. But that rule hasn’t stopped a few brave souls whose creativity would have been stifled by strict adherence to the rule book.
In 2022, the Cincinnati Bengals’ running back, Joe Mixon, scored a touchdown, then pulled a coin from his glove and flipped it, a wry allusion to the league deciding that a coin toss might determine home-field advantage for an upcoming playoff game.
Mixon was fined a curiously specific $13,261 for the stunt.
In another famous prop incident in 2003, Joe Horn of the New Orleans Saints scored a touchdown, rushed to the goal post, grabbed a flip phone he had hidden there, then mimed making a call. He got a $30,000 fine.
In 2002, Terrell Owens of the San Francisco 49ers celebrated a touchdown by pulling out a hidden Sharpie and autographing the ball. He avoided a fine for that, but got dinged for $5,000 for wearing an untucked shirttail. Yes, another rule.
What’s next?
Don’t fear: You haven’t seen it all. Imagine what would happen if an extra point was blocked, a defensive player recovered the ball, and while returning it retreated into his own end zone and was tackled there. That would be a safety — a safety worth 1 point.
Maybe someday.
The post The Fair Catch Free Kick, and 4 Other Obscure-but-Real N.F.L. Rules appeared first on New York Times.
