Crazy NFL Rules part 1

When you see something you have never seen before it can be shocking. This can really be evident if during a game you see your team taken advantage of by their opponents because the opponents used rules to do something unique. We will look at a couple of these as well as some now discarded crazy rules of the NFL.

A website that I  love to use because of my officiating background is, Football Zebras. It is not just a place to officials and former striped clad folks to visit, it is really geared at the average football enthusiast. The history of the game that they preserve is really quite well done. Here are a few items that Football Zebras talk about in reference to our topic in this edition.

Three yards and a cloud of dust encouraged 

"It’s a foreign concept today, but the NFL discouraged the passing game in the 1930s. In 1934, the NFL had a rule that stated that if there was an incomplete pass in the end zone on fourth down, or if there were two incomplete passes in the end zone in the same series, the play resulted in a touchback! So, if he was first and goal on the nine yard line, and the offense threw two incomplete passes into the end zone on first and second down, the defense got the ball via touchback on their own 20 yard line! Up through 1974, an incomplete pass into the end zone on fourth down resulted in a touchback, if snapped inside the 20-yard line. Starting in 1975, the defense took over after a fourth down incomplete pass into the end zone, from the previous spot.

NFL had mercy on the passing game in 1934, as it stated that an incomplete pass was simply a loss of down at the previous spot. Up until 1934, an incomplete pass resulted in a loss of down and a five-yard penalty from the previous spot! Can you imagine Phillip Rivers and Tom Brady operating under 1934 passing rules?!"

This next rule is not attempted  very often but is in the rulebooks of High school, college and NFL football. It is when a team can try a field goal from free kick formation after they are awarded a fair catch. This is not field goal formation in the traditional sense that you see being tried on extra point and normal field goals. Not this is the formation you see on kickoffs. There is a 10 yard neutral zone so in essence no defender can be within ten yards of the ball until foot hits ball.  Here is what the NFL rule says in the 2021 book:

SECTION 4 - FIELD GOAL
ARTICLE 1. SUCCESSFUL FIELD GOAL
A field goal is scored when all of the following conditions are met:

The kick must be a placekick or dropkick made by the offense from on or behind the line of scrimmage or from the spot of a fair catch (fair-catch kick). If a fair catch is made or awarded outside the inbound line, the spot of the kick is the nearest inbound line.

The Carolina Panthers tried one of these in the 2019 season in a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, yes the old Fair Catch FG. Panthers FG after fair catch

Prior to that the last time it was tried at the NFL level was a 71 yard attempt by the 49ers kicker Phil Dawson during the 2013 season.

A coach has to be smart and let his players know that the intent is. It is not a complicated rule but it is unique, few people know about it and you almost never see it happen. One reason is that it only makes sense at the end of a half, when time is short and three points will help the receiving team. Oh and don't forget you have to be in range of your kickers leg!

Yes by looking at Rule 4 above in the NFL we also see that using a drop kick to get points is still legal as well. Don't forget Doug Flutie was the latest to have used the ancient way of scoring when he drop kicked a successful FG while with the Patriots against the Miami Dolphins on January 1, 2006. ESPN.com guides us through the play:

"Doug Flutie enters the game for what initially appears to be a two-point conversion play. After getting his teammates set in a “very strange formation,” Flutie backs up well beyond the normal shotgun position, to the 13-yard line, catches the snap, takes a couple steps forward, drops the ball off the ground and quickly kicks it through the uprights."

It was strange indeed even for an extra point attempt. That was first one made inthe NFL in over 4 decades! Crazy right?

The picture in the banner above is fromWikimedia Commons collection of Harvard's Charles Brickley drop kicking a field goal to beat Dartmouth on November 16, 1912.