Interesting or obscure football trivia

Nonstopdrivel
Preferred Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

I think it's time we had a full-fledged thread with interesting and obscure football trivia.

I'll start it out.

Did you know that, by rule in both high school and NFL football, a coach can elect to take a free kick whenever a fair catch is called? If that free kick goes through the uprights, it's three points.

I doubt 1 in 10 coaches and officials knows about this oddity.

+1 to whomever successfully identifies the NFL rule governing this peculiar situation.

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Nonstopdrivel
Preferred Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

Another trivia related to obscure rules.

On the play in question, the officials assessed an excessive celebration penalty and refused to let the winning team waive the extra point, despite the fact that time had already expired. In a somewhat creative show of contempt for the officials' actions, the team elected to take a knee instead of kicking the extra point.

However, unnoticed by the officials was a rather remarkable violation by the defense of another football rule. It's most apparent in the moments after the catch. Check out this video.

[youtube]3BcVk62egS0[/youtube]

EDIT: Heh, I just noticed you can see the violation in the preview image itself.

Rockmolder
Honored Member

14 years ago

"Nonstopdrivel" wrote:

We actually did that a year or two ago.

[youtube]RiAR0h6LBsQ[/youtube]

Nonstopdrivel
Preferred Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

Wow, you're right . For some reason I had remembered that free kick coming off a penalty. Well done!

Zero2Cool
Elite Member

14 years ago

"Nonstopdrivel" wrote:

I think I'm missing something. If a fair catch is called, how do you get a free kick? If they raise their hand signaling fair catch, do you get to do the kick over as a free kick? If the ball is trailing so far that it could go through the upright, why would someone call a fair catch knowing by doing so they are giving the opponent an opportunity to get points?

Where's the definition of this rule, I'm completely lost here.

Edit, Oooh I get it now. If YOU fair catch the ball, then YOU get to free kick, but that's the same thing as kicking a long ass field goal so I don't know what advantage is yet.

musccy
Veteran Member

14 years ago

Is the ECU violation that they have 2 #1s on the field at the same time? Tulsa apparently thinks very highly of themselves!

IronMan
Veteran Member

14 years ago

They can only elect to free kick if the fair catch happens with no time left on the clock.

Nonstopdrivel
Preferred Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

The advantage is that the defense must line up at least 10 yards off the line of scrimmage, which drastically reduces the pressure on the kicker and increases the chance of his making a long field goal. Besides, fair catches are sometimes made after short or otherwise botched punts, so the kick wouldn't have to be extremely long.

That being said, the last time an NFL kicker successfully scored off a free kick was in 1976 (Ray Wersching for the San Diego Chargers against the Buffalo Bills). Only seven free kicks have been attempted since, including the one by Mason Crosby.

Nonstopdrivel
Preferred Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

They can only elect to free kick if the fair catch happens with no time left on the clock.

"IronMan" wrote:

Not true. A free kick is like a field goal or kickoff in almost every way.

Formo
Veteran Member

14 years ago

#10

"Nonstopdrivel" wrote:

I missed the point in this post.

Thanks to TheViking88 for the sig!!

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