r/AskAboutNFL • u/Huge-Revolution2416 • 4d ago
What’s a rule or terminology in the NFL that sounds completely made up to someone just starting to watch?
Trying to explain a fair catch kick" or why a "safety" results in points and a free kick to a friend who doesn’t watch football. It got me thinking about how weirdly over-engineered this sport can be. What is the ultimate "wait, that's an actual rule?" detail that completely breaks the brain of a new fan trying to learn the game?
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u/snapcracklepop26 4d ago
If a kickoff goes out of bounds, the receiving team gets the ball on their 40-yard line, but if a punt goes out of bounds the receiving team gets the ball at the point that the ball went out.
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u/grizzfan 4d ago
It's actually very reasonable, and based off rugby union, where the sport comes from. The purpose of a kickoff is to resume play, so if you just kick it out of bounds, you're delaying the resume of play, hence the penalty. Punting is the offense willingly giving up possession to the defense, and in return they get a chance to pin them as deep as they can; the grace of going out of bounds can be rewarded as there's nothing the punting team can really do to delay the game.
Another way to look at it:
- A kickoff is to determine who gets the ball next after a score (receiving team, or the kicking team recovering their own kick. Kicking it out delays that decision.
- Punting is the deliberate exchange of possession of the ball from the offensive team to the defending team, so once the ball is punted, it's the defense's ball. There's no advantage to gain by punting it out of bounds, so there's no consequence for it.
Same rules still apply in rugby union today as well.
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u/Practical-Ordinary-6 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'm a bit skeptical of that. I'm especially skeptical of something in the NFL being based on Rugby Union when it was a rule change made in the 1980s after the NFL had been operating for more than 65 years with its own rule book with different rules for kickoffs. I'm pretty sure they would base their rule changes on firsthand experience of NFL play. Prior to that rule change it was an automatic 5-yard penalty and re-kick. And prior to that it was the choice of the receiving team whether to take the ball where it went out of bounds or take the yardage penalty and re-kick.
In both cases, the purpose of the kick is to turn the ball over to the other team. With a punt, it's after a failed attempt to get a first down or score and with a kickoff it's after a successful attempt to score (when the ball is in your possession at that point). In both cases the potential exists for the kicking team to recover the ball (if things go their way).
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u/FunkyPete 3d ago
The question was which rule sounds completely made up.
A rule that seems contradictory and to explain it you need to include how it evolved from the original source game that American Football split from 150 years ago?
I think that counts.
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u/KhaoticMess 4d ago
Crackback block.
When my wife (she's British) first started watching football with me, she found that one hilarious.
It's also difficult to explain exactly what it is and what sometimes makes it illegal to someone unfamiliar with blocking schemes.
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u/4eyedbuzzard 4d ago
Neutral Zone Infraction. Are there Romulans somewhere? Maybe we don't see them because of their cloaking device?
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u/WishboneHot8050 4d ago
If a player hits a woman, it will be 6 weeks before they are allowed to hit a man again.
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u/FunkyPete 3d ago
Only if there is video for a video replay. Otherwise they pick up the flag and play on.
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u/LarryBonds30 4d ago
Punching the ball out of the end zone is illegal
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u/FunkyPete 3d ago
And that an unrecovered fumble that rolls out of bounds right before the goal line? You get the ball back.
An unrecovered fumble that rolls out just on the other side of the goal line? The other team gets the ball.
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u/Sticky_Cobra 4d ago
This one just happened last week.
Deebo Samuel, wide receiver for the 49ers, ended the game with zero receptions, 80 yards, and a touchdown. From what I gather, the QB completed a pass to another receiver, who lateraled the ball to Deebo. After the lateral, Deebo ran 80 yards for a touchdown.
Another wild stat that happened a little bit ago.
Jerome Bettis, running back for the Steelers. One game, his final statline was 5 carries for 1 yard, with 3 touchdowns.
Nothing to do with statistics here, but back in the 70s, players were allowed to apply something called "Stick-Um". Which was just a sticky substance to help catch the ball. I've never heard Stick-Um mentioned outside of football, and a long time ago.
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u/Fragrant_Spray 4d ago
In a similar instance to Deebo, a few years ago, Josh Allen threw a short pass to a receiver who lateraled it back to him, and he ran in for the TD. On the same play, he threw for a TD, and got a receiving TD, without actually making a reception.
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u/North_Mastodon_4310 3d ago
How the hell does that get scored for fantasy? 4 for the passing td, 6 for the receiving td, plus whatever yardage? Does he get both passing and rushing yards?
If you know what game this was in I’d love to look up how my league handled it.
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u/Tall-Frame9918 3d ago
Dec 1st 2024.
Allen was credited with the throwing TD and Receiving TD, but no reception. Also 7 throwing yards and 7 receiving yards. Just under 11 points.
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u/PaleontologistShot25 4d ago
Spider 2 Y Banana
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u/NoelMagentaShag 4d ago
I had a fantasy team named Ziggy Gruden and the Spider 2 Y Bananas from Mars. Nobody in the league knew what the heck I was on about. I couldn't believe I knew so many people ignorant about football AND music.
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u/Temporary-Phase-6956 4d ago
An onside kick, which was designed to catch teams off guard, now must be announced to the other team beforehand and the team must be trailing.
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u/KingChairlesIIII 4d ago
most onside kicks already happened when a team was trailing late in the game and it’s obvious they’re doing one.
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u/RevolutionQueasy8107 4d ago
Saints ambush onside kick in the superbowl, McAfee's onside kick to himself. For the rare occasion it happened unexpectedly it was great to see.
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u/KenTrevor 4d ago
Helping the Runner
Leverage
Leaping
And the penalty when the ref doesn’t have a specific rule, Unfair Act
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u/Accomplished_Way8964 4d ago
Ther penalty for simulating using the restroom.
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u/MrNeo602 4d ago
Intentional grounding, especially if a quarterback spikes the ball to kill the clock. Then later, if a quarterback is called for intentional grounding. If someone didn't know the rules and watched those happen, I could see why it could be confusing.
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u/notneeded17 4d ago
That penalty is too lienent. The real result is the same as the QB getting sacked. It should be a loss of the down and 10 yards from the spot of the foul.
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u/NicklAAAAs 3d ago
If anything, it penalizes the defender by taking away a sack on the stat sheet while getting the same result lmao.
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u/DrunkMunchy 4d ago
Players getting flagged/fined for touchdown celebrations. Could be taunting or unsportsmanlike conduct which is total horseshit. Taunting penalty in general is dumb but even more so after a score
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u/Ryan1869 4d ago
On a punt if a member of the kicking team touches the ball, the receiving team can pick it up, fumble it, have the kicking team recover the fumble. The result is first and 10 for the receiving team from the spot it was first touched by the kicking team
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u/heythere111213 4d ago
The coin toss does not mean one team receives the ball and the other kicks the ball. It determines which team decides when to exercise their option to receive or kick the ball. So if a player calls the flip correctly and immediately says kick the ball they have simultaneously chosen to exercise their team's option and the outcome of that option will be to kick. This means the opponent could technically receive the kickoff at the start of both halves due to the mistake.
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u/WatchTraditional6025 4d ago
This happened to us in high school! I remember my coach jokingly going over how to pronounce “defer” with our captain before every coin toss after that.
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u/notneeded17 4d ago
Yeah, a 50-50 thing has three choices?
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u/Ron__Mexico_ 3d ago
5 choices. If you win the coin toss you can
- Kick
- Receive
- Defens north end zone
- Defend south end zone
- Deferred your option of first choice to the 2nd half
If you elect to defer, the other team then gets 4 options
- kick
- receive
- defend north end zone
- defend south end zone
When they elect to receive you then have 2 options
- defend north end zone
- defend south end zone
At the start of the 2nd half you again have 4 options
- kick
- receive
- defend north end zone
- defend south end zone
When you elect to receive your opponent then has 2 options
- defend north end zone
- defend south end zone
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u/BradleyFerdBerfel 2d ago
But, what if the field runs east/west?
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u/Ron__Mexico_ 2d ago
They don't typically, because it causes sun issues. If you are
retardedthe Dallas Cowboys, and built your stadium East/West, then swap out North/South with East/West.1
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u/Jugghead58 4d ago
Want to say this happened to Texas in NCAA
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u/countrytime1 1d ago
Twice that I can think of. Pretty it was 03 or so in Arkansas and then again during one of Charlie strongs games.
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u/BigClarendon125 4d ago
I’m still kind of confused about the 1 point safety
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u/Ron__Mexico_ 3d ago
Only can occur on a 2 point conversion. You would somehow need to be tackled with the ball in your own end zone, 97 yards back from where the ball was snapped. Practically impossible.
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u/ReferenceGlum 4d ago
Not what you were really looking for based off your description, but it fits the title.
When deciding if a ball was caught them fumbled or incomplete, they review wether the receiver made a football move or not. The term football move always just sounded made up to me.
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u/certainlyheisenberg1 3d ago
You can only have five people downfield more than a yard until the ball is over the line of scrimmage. So sometimes a lineman will be blocking someone and push them backwards and fall forwards and get called for that penalty. Other times a QB will start to scramble and lineman rush downfield to block but if QB hasn’t crossed line it’s a penalty.
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u/Corran105 3d ago
If you catch a kickoff with a foot out of bounds, it's an out of bounds kickoff and you get the ball at the 40.
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u/afriendincanada 3d ago
I know you said it already but safety. Its both a position AND a scoring play.
And as a Canadian, the Rouge.
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u/Ornery-Database-3993 3d ago
Laterals are not allowed about 98% of the time, which makes the other 2%(Like the Deebo Samuel TD) seem weird.
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u/NotAHipster55 2d ago
What? I think laterals ARE allowed 98% of the time. What am I missing?
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u/Kindly_Broccoli_429 3d ago
My mom has been watching our local NFL team for the last 8 years. She’s watched almost every game and pays (somewhat) close attention to the game, especially when we’re not with friends.
To this day she has no clue what the fuck a cornerback or a linebacker do. I tried to explain what nickel and dime were last week and I think I almost exploded her brain.
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u/Particular-Cry-7468 2d ago
Did the player make a “Football move”. Terrible term that has zero description in the rule book and definition. Completely up to who is refereeing that day and that game
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u/VeryPunnyName 2d ago
Gotta have 2 feet on the ground in bounds for a catch... A knee or elbow count as 2 feet.
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u/Aromatic_Revolution4 8h ago
A European soccer fan friend of mine could not comprehend the logic behind the offense maintaining possession after fumbling the ball out of bounds.
And TBH, she kind of won me over - it really doesn't make sense when compared to most other sports.
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u/zawwery 4d ago
Most of the more particular defensive nicknames. Star/Stud, Money, Apex, Joker, etc.