Besides determining what is and what isn't a catch, the NFL's fumble-touchback rule is the league's most controversial ordinance. Here's the rule, put in simple terms: If an offensive player fumbles the football and it goes out of bounds in the end zone, the team that was originally on defense now takes over the ball on its own yard line.
This, of course, is a lot different than if an offensive player fumbles the football out of bounds at any other part of the field, where that team retains possession with the ball placed where it crossed over the white lines. During this past season's playoffs, this controversial rule once again came up when Browns wideout Rashad Higgins fumbled the football in the end zone in the Divisional Round against the Chiefs. The turnover, naturally, played a pivotal role in the final outcome of the game, a five-point Kansas City victory.
At the time of Higgins' fumble, Washington defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio took to Twitter to share his opinion on the rule, calling it "outdated" and saying it needs to be changed. Del Rio's direct boss, Washington head coach Ron Rivera, disagrees with him, telling Rich Eisen that the rule should stay as is. The solution remains simple and clear: If a player fumbles the ball into and out of the end zone before anyone recovers it, the offense gets the ball at the spot of the fumble.
You score a touchdown when you enter the end zone in control of the football. The important factor in a safety is impetus, which is the action of an offensive player that gives the ball momentum.
No one recovers it, yet the ball suddenly belongs to the defense, since the rules state that a fumble that goes out of the end zone without being recovered by the offense results in a touchback for the opposing team.
A much rarer occurrence is the one-point safety, which can be scored by the offense on an extra point or two-point conversion attempt; those have occurred at least twice in NCAA Division I football since , most recently at the Fiesta Bowl. No conversion safeties have occurred since at least in the NFL.
A safety is worth two points. A safety also is awarded when the offensive team commits a penalty that would otherwise require it to have the ball marked in its own end zone.
See how your reaction changes when a ball comes loose close to the sideline. Or I could have gone the college basketball route and proposed I get this fumble out of bounds, and you get the next one.
Does it matter that they happened at wildly different points on the field? Would Pac officials screw this up in a game and award a fumble to the same team three times in a row? Frankly, I think I deserve some recognition for proposing something far better than either of those possibilities.
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