Grossi would know. The Packers Mason Crosby attempted one years ago vs the Lions and it was from 69 yards. He actually had the distance but it was wide right. If made that would have been a new NFL record.
@@dondajulah4168 From what I've heard, the free kick can be either kicked off the ground with a holder OR dropped like a punt. It's up to the team's preference.
Fun Fact: The fair catch free kick is the only rule leftover from the first American football game in 1869. It's from American football rugby's origins, called goal from mark.
Technically, it was the second game, which was a rematch held at Princeton (their house rules allowed for it but Rtgers' didn't), and it's notable in part because fair catch kicks were outlawed in soccer in 1866. There were a variety of competing rule sets from that period, mostly descending from the Rugby rules codified in 1845 and the soccer-like Eton rules from 1847. Rutgers and Princeton borrowed different rules from each with substantial overlap. There was also the Eton-like Boston rule set from 1862, which was adopted by Harvard several years later. The catalyst for the separation of soccer and gridiron into distinct games was the Harvard-McGill series in 1874. McGill used mostly Rugby-style rules, which Harvard liked enough to adopt substantially. They shared these with Yale and Princeton in 1875, and the first distinctly proto-gridiron game began the process of standardization that would gradually become more recognizable over the next 30-40 years. Canadian football evolved more or less in parallel. By the early to mid 1900's, the game strongly resembled the modern one, with changes from that point largely motivated by an emphasis on safety. The American-like Burnside rules were adopted in Canada in 1903, and the two games evolved largely in parallel from that period on. One early example of divergence from that point was the revision to the American game in 1912, where touchdowns were increased in value to 6 points, end zones were introduced, the field of play was shrunk to 100 yards, and the number of downs to gain 10 yards was increased to 4.
Norv was competent. I mean his 2010 team had the best offense AND defense ... which is why the special teams causing so many losses made them so heartbreaking. But that's all he was, competent.
I love that Al Michaels was the announcer on this. He was also the announcer on the last attempted fair-catch kick before Dicker's last night, and he absolutely knew the rule immediately as the Broncos punted. I've watched maybe two other games where this situation was in play and the announcers were aware of it, but in one, the ball was returned, and in the other it was punted out of bounds.
My best guess is that it’s one of those overlooked rules because the situation doesn’t happen often and I don’t find it surprising that Jim Harbaugh did this before. It’s just another example of why he’s a really good football coach both in the NFL and at the college level.
@@Tylerda-sb3iw Yeah, for the situation to happen you need the catch to occur with basically no time left on the clock, and the catch to happen within field goal range (or, as happened here, a penalty to move the ball into field goal range).
Yeah especially because I knew about it since I was like 9 or 10. Like 18 years ago. Also with Joey slye's attempt in London like 4 years ago, you would think it would all be over the Internet like it was this time
I remember Mike McCarthy doing it with the Packers and Mason Crosby tried from 70 or so. I think he had a strong wind to his back but I remember thinking it was awesome
It's not just the rule being so obscure but how rare it is that a fair catch kick would make strategic sense. It's about as rare as in chess underpromoting to a bishop and it actually makes strategic sense.
@ I looked it up. There may be a chance that promoting to queen leads to a stalemate based on where the king is located. You could make it so that the king has no legal moves left and all the other pieces are blocked.
This is NOT the only rule pertaining to fair catch kicks, like this creator is trying to lead you to believe. It is a play that may occur at any time throughout a game but likely will only occur at the end of a half because its essentially the same as kicking a field goal on first down.
@georgelanders4271 jano missed a 64 yarder just before half of a game vs San Diego. Hit the left upright about 15 feet up. But he did that against a rush, not a free placekick.
@@joelsimeone5112 76, actually. But just a regular FG, with defense able to rush. The benefit of the fair-catch kick is that you can take your time and it can't be blocked.
That rule is only obscure because of how short the football season is. If football played 82 games like hockey or basketball or 162 games like baseball this wouldn't be nearly as rare as it is a situational call that you take before the end of the half or the game. More games, more opportunities for rare situational play.
True enough, but the big problem is punters are good enough that being in range for a free kick after the punt basically never happens. Being in range after one is nearly impossible with modern kickers. And being in range after one with a fair catch violation requires a penalty, as here, that's so weird that half the commentators weren't even sure of the interaction, even if they knew about the play potential.
Probably the weirdest state law is in Alaska. Over there it is illegal to push a live moose out of a moving airplane. Which brings to mind two questions: 1) Why would you even HAVE a live moose on board a moving airplane, and 2) assuming you did, why in the name of Sarah Palin would you want to push the moose out of the moving airplane?
With kickers starting to get more accurate with kicks up to 60 yards and sometimes even more, I could see this start occurring more often in the tight circumstances. Imagine how long of a kick Brandon Aubrey could hit with no rush and the chance for a long run up.
Yeah, not really. Punters have stronger legs too and you're relying on a punter punting backed up and you getting the ball in makeable field goal range. The kicker being allowed a running start ads power but lowers accuracy.
Fascinated to see how the rule develops with the legs of kickers nowadays. Feels like a rule teams could easily use when chasing a game and time is the most precious thing
@@georgealvarez1195 You don't need zero time left on the clock. You can do it on any fair catch--it just doesn't make strategic sense to do it except at the end of a half...UNLESS you're in a situation where you need 10 points late to tie. Then Mattsw's proposal might make sense--do the fair-catch kick immediately with a minute or so left, and then either onside kick or use your timeouts.
I was geeking out watching this live, since I was familiar with the rule, but had never seen one (obviously, since I was 4 years old the last time it was successfully done).
Yeah that’s totally ironic that the two successful fair catch kicks would be by Charger kickers. Must have to do with something in California lol. I’m not trying to point to anything specific in the great state of California, just trying to make a joke.
It's not just an NFL rule. You can do this in high school and I've seen it. I was working for a newspaper in Southeast Kansas in 1999 when a team attempted this at the end of the first half of the Class 5A state championship. The team (Salina Central) decided kind of late and they had to kick a dance team off the field so they could try it. They missed but it didn't matter, Salina Central dominated.
Yep, it's NFL and high school. But you can't do it in the CFL (no fair catches) or in college (eliminated the fair catch in 1950--they brought the fair catch back one year later but not the fair catch kick).
On a punt, the list of fouls that can lead to an untimed down includes illegal touching. The kind that is usually punished with an Official's Timeout. The kind we usually call "downing the ball."
'Illegal touching' on the punting team is a violation but not a penalty. I've seen it happen at the end of a qtr where the receiving team gets an untimed down.
this is where we find out that you had a History of The NFL video about the most obscure play in Chargers history in the pipeline, but thought it wouldn't be relevant and passed on releasing it this week, only for Thursday to happen
Were the Chargers considering a 72-yard Fair Catch kick? Because in that situation there is no reason to fair catch otherwise. You either try to return for a TD, or let the ball go to avoid a muff, or you fair catch kick. Fair catching to end the half is a pointless risk. I think they told him to fair catch near the 40, then we'll decide, even if it is over 70 yards out.
Did you kniw that after a team scores, the team that gets scored on actualy has the choice of whether they want to kick off or receive, i know it sounds stupid but thats the actual rule
I could see that being used if there's so little time left you're vulnerable to a squib kick and would rather take your chances on a recovery + hail mary combo 🤞
Most impressive part of this, Toyota was the sponsor of the Monday Night halftime show back then like they are now for Sunday night football. Much like their vehicles the company sponsorship is reliable as well.
We had more free kick touchdowns than free kick field goals until last night. The Jets scored a touchdown on a kickoff because the Bills returner didn't realize the ball rolling into the end zone wasn't immediately a touchback
They same thing happened during a punt (wanna say saits v rams early 2000's). Keep in mind a punt becoming a dead ball after it crosses into the endzone is a realitively new rule
I'm a chargers fan born in San Diego, my dad is a Broncos fan who was born in Denver. You could imagine his reaction to this kick Also FYI the fair catch kick was the one of the late and great John Madden's favorite rule. Wish he was alive to see this kick
I've only ever seen a fair catch kick once live. It was a high school game, and our coach was taking time outs to talk things out with both the refs and the kicker (who was also the starting goalie on the soccer team). They attempted it but he missed it. I think it had the length but was wide of the mark.
Why doesn't the NFL enforce the 2 yard halo rule on punts anymore? I swear almost every punt (including this one), you can always see the gunners damn near making contact with the returner. It's almost like they have to blast the guy before he catches the ball, on order to get fair kick interference called.
Do you really want to give NFL officials another rule to mis-interpret? The "halo" rule was an NCAA rule, and it was impossible to consistently enforce because what looked like 3 yards to one official would get called as a 1.9999 yard violation on a different play.
Crazy stats for this. First attempted in 1921. The numbers of games played in pro football since 1921 is roughly 24,000 (number of seasons X numbers of games in a season X number of teams each year). Only attempted 27 times (0.001%), only successful 7 times (0.0003%). Three ten thousandths of a percent. The overwhelming majority of these kicks were at 0:00 in the 2nd quarter. Yep, pretty rare.
As soon as I saw the penalty my first thought was, "Are they close enough to do a fair catch kick?" I have spent way too much time looking at "rare events in sports" on Wikipedia, so it was my time to shine! Too bad I was watching the game by myself and tape delayed by 20 minutes. Hell is seeing a golden opportunity to show your mastery of esoteric minutia and spiking the ball into the ground.
Last year during the Thanksgiving day game between the Packers and Lions GB had a situation at the end of the 1st half where they could have taken a fair catch free kick but Lafleur for some reason didn't take it.
The Last make on a fair catch kick was Rey Wershing for the Chargers. Rey Wershing would go on to join the start of the 49ers Dynasty of the 80s. The 9ers Dynasty pretty much culminated with the 94 Superbowl where the 49ers beat the Chargers. Then in 2012 a 49ers coach named Jim Harbaugh attempted a fair catch kick to (Phil Dawson at StL) now in 2024 he now coaches the chargers and attempts it again and makes it. Lol crazy
I might be becoming crazy, but, isn't this the exact way the mustache guy, started in Germany with the beer hall in Bavaria( Jan 6th)???? are we actually going down this again??? I pray for humanity 🙏
1) I thought from the thumbnail you were saying last night's fair catch kick was the worst. 2) of course Harbaugh would be the one to know about it. 3) with kickers getting so much better I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more fair catch kicks. I mean if it's the end of a half there's really no downside as long as the kicker has the leg to make it out of the end zone.
Only team to succeed at the fair catch kick since the 1970 merger is the Chargers, and now theyve done it twice... "Yall suck. How many Super Bowls you got?" "Zero. How many Fair Catch Kicks yall got?"
I wasn't aware that you can make a fair catch kick with zero time in the absence of a penalty. I had thought that the Chargers had that option only because of the penalty. But the penalty make it a 57 yard attempt instead of 72.
In the NFL you can extend to try the fair catch kick even without a penalty. In high school ball, you may not extend unless there's a penalty or some other reason to extend.
@beastmode_bumblebee i meant to say i didn't know it applied to the situation like Thursday where it could be done after fair catch interference where there wants actually a fair catch that was caught. I knew it applied to regular fair catches.
The rule you showed seemed to require that the clock runs out during the fair catch, But the examples on another video show free kicks when punts are fair caught with some time still left on the clock. What is the rule?
We can only hope a blocked extra point rolls forward, the defense picks it up, pitches it backward to a teammate in the endzone and then gets tackled by the kicker or other teammate from the kicking team 😂
@@rockyjforay That's happened twice in college (and Brad Nessler called both games, oddly enough). Rarer would be the one-point safety by the *offense*, where the ball ends up in their own endzone. This is the only way that a team can have exactly 1 point (if the defense is being shut out). It's a little more possible now in the NFL with the defense being able to return PATs--the "easiest" way for it to happen would be for the defense to run it most of the way back, fumble, then the offense picks it up inside their own 5 and runs backwards into the endzone where they're downed.
You know this is very similar to a penalty kick in rugby. According to the rules, if a defending player commits a penalty in their own 22 meter area (the rugby equivalent of the red zone) the offensive team has the option to either go for it or take the kick through the goalpost for 3 points.
He mentions a couple of times in this video about the clock hitting zero being a factor, but I don't believe it is. I'm pretty sure the fair catch kick rule allows any punt that is fair-caught to have the next down be a held placekick from the line of scrimmage (though, by NFL rules, not technically a free kick). You just would never see anyone try that at the expense of a full set of downs if time wasn't expiring.
10:07 - If Dennis Miller was on MNF in 1999 instead of 2000, he would mention that Alfred Hitchcock was the referee for this game. Tom White was the referee and I always remembered that he was #123. Does this rule exist when you play Madden?
12:15 I noticed the rule in 1999 stated “receivers” can choose to extend the period for the free kick. Doesn’t that mean the player that caught the ball or made the signal to catch it, HAS to be the player who makes the kick, NOT the special teams kicker?!
This game is more known for Jamal Anderson’s career ending knee injury This was the last season of the Cowboys triplets of Aikman, Smith, & Irvin playing together
It's actually any fair catch that has the option for a fair catch kick. This particular rule is also mentioned again when you have a penalty with no time left as well. It only really make sense to do if there is no time remaining but it is an option anytime a fair catch is called.
I'm going to guess the first time I heard of this was in 1976 and wondered why it wasn't implemented more but since it's usually missed, that might be why.
@OfficialJaguarGator9 my bad I misread the verbiage. And I thought at one time it was? When you look at some of the older attempts from the 70s and even the 80s it looks like the kickers are hitting a ball made entirely of laces and the assignment was to mimic a mortally wounded bird at terminal velocity or the infamous neikro knuckle curve
Meaning, you'd think they would know better. I think the dropkick option for the sister rule was certainly appealing for many years as placekickers were rarely making 50 plus yard field goals consistently and couldn't even achieve 75 to 80% on field goals less than that. The drop kick would conceivably allow for greater distance and control of the ball flight than would any place kicker attempting a 55 plus yarder weather the defense was lined up 10 yd away or like a standard pre-2024 kick return wedge
There are some other obscure rules : 1) If someone is running all alone right by the other teams sideline and someone on the bench trips him .If the referee thinks the player would have scored the TD he can award that to him. That is called a palpably unfair act 2) If a team Is late getting on the field for the coin toss its a 15 yard penalty and they lose their coin toss option
The palpably unfair act penalty has never been used professionally in the NFL, but it has been used once in what is today known as the Canadian Football League. In the 1957 Grey Cup Game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hamilton defensive back Ray Bawel intercepted a Blue Bomber pass and ran almost unopposed for what would have been a touchdown, when he was tripped by David Humphrey, a fan from Toronto who snuck onto the Winnipeg sideline and stuck his foot out. As a result, a palpably unfair act penalty was given to Winnipeg. The referees could have awarded Hamilton a touchdown, but they decided that Bawel could have been tackled by the Blue Bomber that was giving chase had he not been tripped, so the penalty was enforced half the distance to the goal instead. Even if the refs had awarded Hamilton the touchdown, it wouldn’t have mattered as the Tiger-Cats would win the 45th Grey Cup Game 32-7.
I saw Joe Avezzano with Gailey in some of the frames there. Avezzano was a special-teams coach forever, including in Dallas for 13 seasons. I don't understand why he didn't tell Gailey he could still attempt the kick. Surely he knew...
Every time this shit happens there’s some moron that’s like “I didn’t even know it was a rule“ when I’ve seen at least 5 happen in the NFL live in my lifetime.
I'm kinda surprised at just how many football diehards don't know this rule. Maybe I just know about it because I'm a GB fan and vividly remember having to learn about it on the fly in 2015 when Crosby attempted one.
Yeah, was gonna say that I remember Crosby trying one, didn't it hit the crossbar on Crosby's attempt? If I remember correctly Crosby was very close to making it.
I remember seeing a video about a way to get 1 point, but it is so rare I don't think it has ever happened i he NLF and maybe once or twice in college football.
Didn't know you could fair catch kick it at 0:00. Watching last night, honestly I thought they could only kick it BECAUSE of the interference giving an untimed down.
the rule is a holdover from the days of rugby is it not? feels very similar to the "Goal attempt" you see after minor to moderate infractions in rugby union
On Thanksgiving Day 2023 Green Bay vs Detroit, the Lions punted and the ball was fair caught at the GB 44 with 5 seconds left, instead of going for a 66 fair catch kick GB decided to throw a short pass then call a timeout and then they went for a conventional 63 yard field goal which missed. In my opinion they should have tried the fair catch kick instead it was 3 yards further than the eventual field goal but there would have been no chance at it being blocked
Fair catch free kick sounds straight out of Canadian football. Would not be surprised if NFL gets rid of the rule. NCAA does without it. Also, it is done from traditional kickoff position, leading to a possible traditional return, and NFL does not want that.
So the worst fair catch kick is one that never actually happened but hypothetically could have happened? I wonder what other worst plays there are that ones that only hypothetically could have happened. Like what's the worst passing play where the team ran the ball instead. Or the worst field goal where the team went for it on 4th down instead. We may never know the answer.
JG09 had this one in cold storage for just such an occasion.
Brandon Perna was _completely_ clueless on this one. "Is this a new rule?" And Tom Grossi is like "It's pretty much the opposite of a new rule."
And Isaac Punts was just in awe.
Funniest part was when Perna (at first) said the referees appeared to not know what they were doing. Um, no my dude, that'd be you LOL
Grossi would know. The Packers Mason Crosby attempted one years ago vs the Lions and it was from 69 yards. He actually had the distance but it was wide right. If made that would have been a new NFL record.
I knew this rule but thought it was a drop kick not a free kick
@@dondajulah4168 From what I've heard, the free kick can be either kicked off the ground with a holder OR dropped like a punt. It's up to the team's preference.
Fun Fact: The fair catch free kick is the only rule leftover from the first American football game in 1869. It's from American football rugby's origins, called goal from mark.
Technically, it was the second game, which was a rematch held at Princeton (their house rules allowed for it but Rtgers' didn't), and it's notable in part because fair catch kicks were outlawed in soccer in 1866. There were a variety of competing rule sets from that period, mostly descending from the Rugby rules codified in 1845 and the soccer-like Eton rules from 1847. Rutgers and Princeton borrowed different rules from each with substantial overlap. There was also the Eton-like Boston rule set from 1862, which was adopted by Harvard several years later. The catalyst for the separation of soccer and gridiron into distinct games was the Harvard-McGill series in 1874. McGill used mostly Rugby-style rules, which Harvard liked enough to adopt substantially. They shared these with Yale and Princeton in 1875, and the first distinctly proto-gridiron game began the process of standardization that would gradually become more recognizable over the next 30-40 years. Canadian football evolved more or less in parallel. By the early to mid 1900's, the game strongly resembled the modern one, with changes from that point largely motivated by an emphasis on safety. The American-like Burnside rules were adopted in Canada in 1903, and the two games evolved largely in parallel from that period on. One early example of divergence from that point was the revision to the American game in 1912, where touchdowns were increased in value to 6 points, end zones were introduced, the field of play was shrunk to 100 yards, and the number of downs to gain 10 yards was increased to 4.
What a legacy rule this is.
John Madden used to mention the fair catch free kick rule in games he broadcast.
Oddly enough, EA sports never installed the option for this free kick on the Madden video game franchise. 😂
He also used to mention how he loved eating turkey.
@@embracinglogic1744Turducken.
Ironic that the Chargers are the team to get something right on special teams.
If only they had in 2010 😨
It helps when they finally have a competent head coach now!
Norv was competent. I mean his 2010 team had the best offense AND defense ... which is why the special teams causing so many losses made them so heartbreaking.
But that's all he was, competent.
@@FletchBrendanGood Yup, but you have to start with competence to get anywhere in the NFL these days. So at lest they're back with that as a start.
I love that Al Michaels was the announcer on this. He was also the announcer on the last attempted fair-catch kick before Dicker's last night, and he absolutely knew the rule immediately as the Broncos punted. I've watched maybe two other games where this situation was in play and the announcers were aware of it, but in one, the ball was returned, and in the other it was punted out of bounds.
Im suprised that more NFL channels arent familiar with this rule. Harbaugh attempted one with his 9ers teams and the last attempt was in 2019
My best guess is that it’s one of those overlooked rules because the situation doesn’t happen often and I don’t find it surprising that Jim Harbaugh did this before. It’s just another example of why he’s a really good football coach both in the NFL and at the college level.
@@Tylerda-sb3iw Yeah, for the situation to happen you need the catch to occur with basically no time left on the clock, and the catch to happen within field goal range (or, as happened here, a penalty to move the ball into field goal range).
Yeah especially because I knew about it since I was like 9 or 10. Like 18 years ago. Also with Joey slye's attempt in London like 4 years ago, you would think it would all be over the Internet like it was this time
I remember Mike McCarthy doing it with the Packers and Mason Crosby tried from 70 or so. I think he had a strong wind to his back but I remember thinking it was awesome
I've seen it twice officiating high school
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that Donovan McNabb didn’t know that NFL games could end in a tie…
McNabb was not a coach
Gotta be pretty dumb not to know that as someone who played the damned sport.
@@BitcoinMotorist doesn't matter if he was a coach or not.
@@BitcoinMotoristI don’t think op said that. And it’s not edited as of right now.
Weird, but when you know he only lead a team to a tie once, makes sense
It's not just the rule being so obscure but how rare it is that a fair catch kick would make strategic sense. It's about as rare as in chess underpromoting to a bishop and it actually makes strategic sense.
How does under promoting to a bishop make sense? I genuinely want to know.
@nicholasb8900 i believe thats the point. It almost never would, especially since a queen does the same moves and more
Maybe not a bishop but a knight, becuase it can make moves that a queen can't
@ I looked it up. There may be a chance that promoting to queen leads to a stalemate based on where the king is located. You could make it so that the king has no legal moves left and all the other pieces are blocked.
@@nicholasb8900
Because promoting to a queen/rook would stalemate etc
This is NOT the only rule pertaining to fair catch kicks, like this creator is trying to lead you to believe. It is a play that may occur at any time throughout a game but likely will only occur at the end of a half because its essentially the same as kicking a field goal on first down.
Im a Raider fan. I absolutely know this rule. I was always hoping we would use it when we had Janikowski to try and break the record
Same, except Titans fan, and during the prime Bironas years
Could have sworn Janikowski did try one from about 75 yards once
Yeah he definitely tried it barely missed. The video is still on TH-cam
@georgelanders4271 jano missed a 64 yarder just before half of a game vs San Diego. Hit the left upright about 15 feet up. But he did that against a rush, not a free placekick.
@@joelsimeone5112 76, actually. But just a regular FG, with defense able to rush. The benefit of the fair-catch kick is that you can take your time and it can't be blocked.
That rule is only obscure because of how short the football season is. If football played 82 games like hockey or basketball or 162 games like baseball this wouldn't be nearly as rare as it is a situational call that you take before the end of the half or the game. More games, more opportunities for rare situational play.
True enough, but the big problem is punters are good enough that being in range for a free kick after the punt basically never happens. Being in range after one is nearly impossible with modern kickers. And being in range after one with a fair catch violation requires a penalty, as here, that's so weird that half the commentators weren't even sure of the interaction, even if they knew about the play potential.
The Broncos' tried one with Fred Steinfort way back in 1980.
It was awful.
JG9 did a video about Fred Steinfort way back in the day.
This is the first fall since 1988 I haven't been on a football field in some capacity, and I had no idea that rule existed
I love the Seinfeld reference to the car reservation skit
Probably the weirdest state law is in Alaska. Over there it is illegal to push a live moose out of a moving airplane.
Which brings to mind two questions: 1) Why would you even HAVE a live moose on board a moving airplane, and 2) assuming you did, why in the name of Sarah Palin would you want to push the moose out of the moving airplane?
As God is my witness, I thought meese could fly.
Maybe you just want to drop a moose on your neighbor's Ford?
@@CTubeManyou did that on purpose you monster. 😂
I’m surprised this was never featured in a Northern Exposure episode.
These obscure laws always exsist because some crazy person attempted something like that in the past
With kickers starting to get more accurate with kicks up to 60 yards and sometimes even more, I could see this start occurring more often in the tight circumstances. Imagine how long of a kick Brandon Aubrey could hit with no rush and the chance for a long run up.
Yeah, not really. Punters have stronger legs too and you're relying on a punter punting backed up and you getting the ball in makeable field goal range. The kicker being allowed a running start ads power but lowers accuracy.
Fascinated to see how the rule develops with the legs of kickers nowadays. Feels like a rule teams could easily use when chasing a game and time is the most precious thing
this only applies when there is zero time left on the clock. On a fair catch...AND if fair catch is interfered with.
@@georgealvarez1195 You don't need zero time left on the clock. You can do it on any fair catch--it just doesn't make strategic sense to do it except at the end of a half...UNLESS you're in a situation where you need 10 points late to tie. Then Mattsw's proposal might make sense--do the fair-catch kick immediately with a minute or so left, and then either onside kick or use your timeouts.
I was geeking out watching this live, since I was familiar with the rule, but had never seen one (obviously, since I was 4 years old the last time it was successfully done).
The last successful fair catch kick was in 1976 according to ESPN.
Ironically, it was a Chargers kicker named Ray Wersching who did it lol
Yeah that’s totally ironic that the two successful fair catch kicks would be by Charger kickers. Must have to do with something in California lol. I’m not trying to point to anything specific in the great state of California, just trying to make a joke.
That's not ironic. It's a coincidence. It would behoove you to learn the difference between the two. @@yourboyken7871
@@Tylerda-sb3iwno it's totally a coincidence. That's not what irony is. You should learn the difference between the two.
it was actually yesterday
It's not just an NFL rule. You can do this in high school and I've seen it. I was working for a newspaper in Southeast Kansas in 1999 when a team attempted this at the end of the first half of the Class 5A state championship. The team (Salina Central) decided kind of late and they had to kick a dance team off the field so they could try it. They missed but it didn't matter, Salina Central dominated.
Yep, it's NFL and high school. But you can't do it in the CFL (no fair catches) or in college (eliminated the fair catch in 1950--they brought the fair catch back one year later but not the fair catch kick).
99 percent of the people didn't know this is a rule.
On a punt, the list of fouls that can lead to an untimed down includes illegal touching. The kind that is usually punished with an Official's Timeout. The kind we usually call "downing the ball."
'Illegal touching' on the punting team is a violation but not a penalty. I've seen it happen at the end of a qtr where the receiving team gets an untimed down.
These have been attempted in fairly recent years so the fact that any football player, coach, or fan doesn't know about it is ridiculous.
this is where we find out that you had a History of The NFL video about the most obscure play in Chargers history in the pipeline, but thought it wouldn't be relevant and passed on releasing it this week, only for Thursday to happen
Were the Chargers considering a 72-yard Fair Catch kick? Because in that situation there is no reason to fair catch otherwise. You either try to return for a TD, or let the ball go to avoid a muff, or you fair catch kick. Fair catching to end the half is a pointless risk. I think they told him to fair catch near the 40, then we'll decide, even if it is over 70 yards out.
Did you kniw that after a team scores, the team that gets scored on actualy has the choice of whether they want to kick off or receive, i know it sounds stupid but thats the actual rule
If my defense was good, I might choose to kick rather than receive, but given my defense just got scored on, I wouldn’t kick to the offense again 😂
I could see that being used if there's so little time left you're vulnerable to a squib kick and would rather take your chances on a recovery + hail mary combo 🤞
Most impressive part of this, Toyota was the sponsor of the Monday Night halftime show back then like they are now for Sunday night football. Much like their vehicles the company sponsorship is reliable as well.
George Halas used this rule to beat the Packers one year at Lambeau.
This option never makes any sense unless it's the end-of-the-half. If you miss the kick, you give possession away.
We had more free kick touchdowns than free kick field goals until last night. The Jets scored a touchdown on a kickoff because the Bills returner didn't realize the ball rolling into the end zone wasn't immediately a touchback
They same thing happened during a punt (wanna say saits v rams early 2000's). Keep in mind a punt becoming a dead ball after it crosses into the endzone is a realitively new rule
@@Michael-sb8jfI am sure that game was in the 80s but yeah Rams ran a punt back against the Saints after it landed in the end zone.
@hamzahb3582
Conflated the dates
The play happened in 94 ruled changed for the 2004 season
I'm a chargers fan born in San Diego, my dad is a Broncos fan who was born in Denver. You could imagine his reaction to this kick
Also FYI the fair catch kick was the one of the late and great John Madden's favorite rule. Wish he was alive to see this kick
I've only ever seen a fair catch kick once live. It was a high school game, and our coach was taking time outs to talk things out with both the refs and the kicker (who was also the starting goalie on the soccer team). They attempted it but he missed it. I think it had the length but was wide of the mark.
Why doesn't the NFL enforce the 2 yard halo rule on punts anymore? I swear almost every punt (including this one), you can always see the gunners damn near making contact with the returner. It's almost like they have to blast the guy before he catches the ball, on order to get fair kick interference called.
Do you really want to give NFL officials another rule to mis-interpret?
The "halo" rule was an NCAA rule, and it was impossible to consistently enforce because what looked like 3 yards to one official would get called as a 1.9999 yard violation on a different play.
This is how I found out that Ray Wersching played for the Chargers before he jumped to the 49ers. This video was some good education for me!
I first found out Wersching played for the Chargers when he was on the Alex Trebek-hosted game show High Rollers in the 1970s.
So that’s what I missed while I was watching the Santa Claus Conquers the Martians episode of MST3K…
I first learned of the rule after reading a book about bizarre situations in football way back in the mid 90's in elementary schools
"Strange But True Football Stories"?
Crazy stats for this. First attempted in 1921. The numbers of games played in pro football since 1921 is roughly 24,000 (number of seasons X numbers of games in a season X number of teams each year). Only attempted 27 times (0.001%), only successful 7 times (0.0003%). Three ten thousandths of a percent. The overwhelming majority of these kicks were at 0:00 in the 2nd quarter. Yep, pretty rare.
I love this channel.
As soon as I saw the penalty my first thought was, "Are they close enough to do a fair catch kick?" I have spent way too much time looking at "rare events in sports" on Wikipedia, so it was my time to shine! Too bad I was watching the game by myself and tape delayed by 20 minutes. Hell is seeing a golden opportunity to show your mastery of esoteric minutia and spiking the ball into the ground.
Last year during the Thanksgiving day game between the Packers and Lions GB had a situation at the end of the 1st half where they could have taken a fair catch free kick but Lafleur for some reason didn't take it.
The Last make on a fair catch kick was Rey Wershing for the Chargers. Rey Wershing would go on to join the start of the 49ers Dynasty of the 80s. The 9ers Dynasty pretty much culminated with the 94 Superbowl where the 49ers beat the Chargers. Then in 2012 a 49ers coach named Jim Harbaugh attempted a fair catch kick to (Phil Dawson at StL) now in 2024 he now coaches the chargers and attempts it again and makes it. Lol crazy
I might be becoming crazy, but, isn't this the exact way the mustache guy, started in Germany with the beer hall in Bavaria( Jan 6th)???? are we actually going down this again??? I pray for humanity 🙏
I have heard of this rule wild that we were able to see one this decade!
I wonder how much longer we'd have had to wait for this video had this not occurred last night.
How do yall not know this rule?
I'm 47 years old. This had literally not happened in my life.
I loved the Seinfeld reference at the end there.
1) I thought from the thumbnail you were saying last night's fair catch kick was the worst. 2) of course Harbaugh would be the one to know about it. 3) with kickers getting so much better I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more fair catch kicks. I mean if it's the end of a half there's really no downside as long as the kicker has the leg to make it out of the end zone.
The hard part about it is that it can't be kicked with a tee, so, it has to be something the kicker and holder practice.
Ahhh Chan Gailey...enough said lol as a Bills fan. Other than a 5 game stretch of success it was this almost every week.
Only team to succeed at the fair catch kick since the 1970 merger is the Chargers, and now theyve done it twice...
"Yall suck. How many Super Bowls you got?"
"Zero. How many Fair Catch Kicks yall got?"
People seem to forget that american football was partly inspired from rugby this being a great example.
I wasn't aware that you can make a fair catch kick with zero time in the absence of a penalty. I had thought that the Chargers had that option only because of the penalty. But the penalty make it a 57 yard attempt instead of 72.
In the NFL you can extend to try the fair catch kick even without a penalty. In high school ball, you may not extend unless there's a penalty or some other reason to extend.
You can attempt a free kick on any fair catch. I saw it once tried and back then you could use the kicking tee.😂😂😂😂😂😂
The rule is so obscure its not in Madden.
Should the kicker line up like he's kicking a regular field goal? Or should he get a longer running start like a kick off?
So I knew the fair catch kick was a thing but had no idea it applied to a play where the fair catch wasn't completed due to interference.
Pretty sure it's after any fair catch, not one not completed bc of interference
@beastmode_bumblebee i meant to say i didn't know it applied to the situation like Thursday where it could be done after fair catch interference where there wants actually a fair catch that was caught. I knew it applied to regular fair catches.
It doesn't have to be as the time us running out it just wouldn't make sense most other situations
Even without the penalty, a fair catch at 0:00 gives you an opportunity to have a free kick.
Yeah, but most of the time it wouldn't make any sense as the catch would typically be well out of kicking range.
The rule you showed seemed to require that the clock runs out during the fair catch, But the examples on another video show free kicks when punts are fair caught with some time still left on the clock. What is the rule?
This increases my hope that we will see a 1 point safety
We can only hope a blocked extra point rolls forward, the defense picks it up, pitches it backward to a teammate in the endzone and then gets tackled by the kicker or other teammate from the kicking team 😂
@@rockyjforay That's happened twice in college (and Brad Nessler called both games, oddly enough). Rarer would be the one-point safety by the *offense*, where the ball ends up in their own endzone. This is the only way that a team can have exactly 1 point (if the defense is being shut out). It's a little more possible now in the NFL with the defense being able to return PATs--the "easiest" way for it to happen would be for the defense to run it most of the way back, fumble, then the offense picks it up inside their own 5 and runs backwards into the endzone where they're downed.
@@pronkb000 I long for the day of the defensive 1-point safety for a team to have exactly 1 point in an NFL game :)
@@pronkb000 It'd be easier if the offense just hurled it out the back deliberately 🏈
The Broncos bungled this game in a historical fashion...
Im a fan and they deserved that L 100%
You know this is very similar to a penalty kick in rugby. According to the rules, if a defending player commits a penalty in their own 22 meter area (the rugby equivalent of the red zone) the offensive team has the option to either go for it or take the kick through the goalpost for 3 points.
2:44 49ers Mike Cofer hacks a Free Kick attempt in the 1988 playoffs. I remember it well. Of course Bill Walsh knew the rule.
My family wondered why I started jumping up and yelling at the TV when they called a fair catch 😂
Sure you did.
I knew about this rule since my senior year in high school when Neil Rackers attempted it a year prior.
He mentions a couple of times in this video about the clock hitting zero being a factor, but I don't believe it is. I'm pretty sure the fair catch kick rule allows any punt that is fair-caught to have the next down be a held placekick from the line of scrimmage (though, by NFL rules, not technically a free kick). You just would never see anyone try that at the expense of a full set of downs if time wasn't expiring.
If you haven’t already look up the end of the Patriots-Chiefs game from 1992.
I remember seeing a free kick like this win a game for the Bears vs the Packers in 1968.
10:07 - If Dennis Miller was on MNF in 1999 instead of 2000, he would mention that Alfred Hitchcock was the referee for this game. Tom White was the referee and I always remembered that he was #123.
Does this rule exist when you play Madden?
12:15 I noticed the rule in 1999 stated “receivers” can choose to extend the period for the free kick. Doesn’t that mean the player that caught the ball or made the signal to catch it, HAS to be the player who makes the kick, NOT the special teams kicker?!
This game is more known for Jamal Anderson’s career ending knee injury
This was the last season of the Cowboys triplets of Aikman, Smith, & Irvin playing together
It's actually any fair catch that has the option for a fair catch kick. This particular rule is also mentioned again when you have a penalty with no time left as well. It only really make sense to do if there is no time remaining but it is an option anytime a fair catch is called.
I'm going to guess the first time I heard of this was in 1976 and wondered why it wasn't implemented more but since it's usually missed, that might be why.
Why not use the tee?
Not allowed
@OfficialJaguarGator9 my bad I misread the verbiage. And I thought at one time it was? When you look at some of the older attempts from the 70s and even the 80s it looks like the kickers are hitting a ball made entirely of laces and the assignment was to mimic a mortally wounded bird at terminal velocity or the infamous neikro knuckle curve
Meaning, you'd think they would know better. I think the dropkick option for the sister rule was certainly appealing for many years as placekickers were rarely making 50 plus yard field goals consistently and couldn't even achieve 75 to 80% on field goals less than that.
The drop kick would conceivably allow for greater distance and control of the ball flight than would any place kicker attempting a 55 plus yarder weather the defense was lined up 10 yd away or like a standard pre-2024 kick return wedge
Better make sure Lucy isn’t holding the ball for Charlie Brown in this critical situation
There are some other obscure rules :
1) If someone is running all alone right by the other teams sideline and someone on the bench trips him .If the referee thinks the player would have scored the TD he can award that to him. That is called a palpably unfair act
2) If a team Is late getting on the field for the coin toss its a 15 yard penalty and they lose their coin toss option
The palpably unfair act penalty has never been used professionally in the NFL, but it has been used once in what is today known as the Canadian Football League.
In the 1957 Grey Cup Game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hamilton defensive back Ray Bawel intercepted a Blue Bomber pass and ran almost unopposed for what would have been a touchdown, when he was tripped by David Humphrey, a fan from Toronto who snuck onto the Winnipeg sideline and stuck his foot out. As a result, a palpably unfair act penalty was given to Winnipeg. The referees could have awarded Hamilton a touchdown, but they decided that Bawel could have been tackled by the Blue Bomber that was giving chase had he not been tripped, so the penalty was enforced half the distance to the goal instead.
Even if the refs had awarded Hamilton the touchdown, it wouldn’t have mattered as the Tiger-Cats would win the 45th Grey Cup Game 32-7.
People forgot Jankowski did this appropriately 20 years ago, but missed the kick. 😂😂
I saw Joe Avezzano with Gailey in some of the frames there. Avezzano was a special-teams coach forever, including in Dallas for 13 seasons. I don't understand why he didn't tell Gailey he could still attempt the kick. Surely he knew...
Every time this shit happens there’s some moron that’s like “I didn’t even know it was a rule“ when I’ve seen at least 5 happen in the NFL live in my lifetime.
In 58 years of watching football I had never heard of this rule. Harbaugh knew it, though.
The title of this video should be:
“The Best Fair Catch Of The Century”
I knew about the fair catch kick but not the option of an extra snap with interference.
I'm kinda surprised at just how many football diehards don't know this rule. Maybe I just know about it because I'm a GB fan and vividly remember having to learn about it on the fly in 2015 when Crosby attempted one.
Yeah, was gonna say that I remember Crosby trying one, didn't it hit the crossbar on Crosby's attempt? If I remember correctly Crosby was very close to making it.
I remember seeing a video about a way to get 1 point, but it is so rare I don't think it has ever happened i he NLF and maybe once or twice in college football.
The Cowboys tried one at the end of a preseason game in the first year or two of the Jones-Johnson era. But the kick missed.
How is this rule not in any of the Madden games?
JG9, the only reason I know of this rule is because of a football board game.
Didn't know you could fair catch kick it at 0:00. Watching last night, honestly I thought they could only kick it BECAUSE of the interference giving an untimed down.
You miss 100% of the shots you don't realize you can take. 😉
Jim haurbaugh probably didnt know till until the ref told him
Everyone watching for 20 yesrs should know this. I remember that AZ NY game.
the rule is a holdover from the days of rugby is it not? feels very similar to the "Goal attempt" you see after minor to moderate infractions in rugby union
Football actually having foot and ball rules! Wow.
Most people that watch american football do not even know that american football is based off of rugby. This rule comes from rugby.
off course it happened to the cowboys
On Thanksgiving Day 2023 Green Bay vs Detroit, the Lions punted and the ball was fair caught at the GB 44 with 5 seconds left, instead of going for a 66 fair catch kick GB decided to throw a short pass then call a timeout and then they went for a conventional 63 yard field goal which missed. In my opinion they should have tried the fair catch kick instead it was 3 yards further than the eventual field goal but there would have been no chance at it being blocked
I never heard of this Rule
Fair catch free kick sounds straight out of Canadian football.
Would not be surprised if NFL gets rid of the rule. NCAA does without it.
Also, it is done from traditional kickoff position, leading to a possible traditional return, and NFL does not want that.
I think every fair catch should require a free kick. Either that or a spot pass.
So the worst fair catch kick is one that never actually happened but hypothetically could have happened? I wonder what other worst plays there are that ones that only hypothetically could have happened. Like what's the worst passing play where the team ran the ball instead. Or the worst field goal where the team went for it on 4th down instead. We may never know the answer.