Greg de'Ville Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 A buddy of mine told me about the time he saw the rarest scoring play in NCAA college football: the one-point safety. It happened again last Friday in Austin at the UT-A&M game. I believe the rule states that if a player from team A recovers the ball in his end zone, advances it across the goal line, fumbles back into the end zone and the team A player or teammate recovers the ball, a one-point safety is awarded to team B. Here is info I gleaned from a blog that has some more info about this rare play, along with the CFL "rouge" or single rule interpretations. To my knowledge, the NFL does not have a one-point safety in its rulebook. --------------------------------------------- About that Longhorn one-point safety I don't do a lot of sports blogging as a rule. I'm a fan, but in moderation, and don't bring any particular knowledge or skills base to my sports blogging. But today's Texas A&M versus Texas game may be an exception — one in which the game officials needed a lawyer on the spot to help persuade the ABC Sports commentators that the officials knew whereof they spoke. As best I could tell, here's what happened: Early in the second half, Texas blocked an Aggie punt, recovered it, and advanced it for a touchdown. Texas' regular placekicking holder was out with an injury; the backup holder bobbled the snap and Texas' placekicker muffed the Point-After-Touchdown kick, booting it through the offensive and defensive line into (but not all the way out of) the end zone. One of the Aggie defenders recovered the live ball — took possession of it, and advanced it out of the end-zone (trying for a two-point counter-conversion) — and then fumbled it back into the end-zone. [update (Sat Nov 27 @ 2:40am): But see the update below: The AP says the ball never quite made it to the A&M end-zone before being recovered by the A&M player who fumbled it into the end-zone.] Thereupon it was recovered, either by himself or by another Aggie, who was immediately tackled in the end-zone. The officials' ruling — to the complete perplexity of the ABC Sports broadcasters — was to award Texas a one-point safety, tying the score at 13-all. A one-point safety?!? Now if that's not enough to send a lawyer-fan to his web browser, I dunno what is! And of course the place to go is the official NCAA website, specifically to the .pdf file containing the 2004 football rules. There, on the 101st page of the .pdf file (internal numbering FR-100), we find Rule 8, entitled "Scoring," in which section 1 decrees: Scoring Plays ARTICLE 1. The point value of scoring plays shall be: Touchdown 6 Points Field Goal 3 Points Safety (points awarded to opponent) 2 Points Successful Try Touchdown 2 Points Field Goal or Safety 1 Point A "regular" PAT would be a "Field Goal" during the "Try Down" that comes after a touchdown (per Rule 8, Section 3), and a two-point conversion would be a "Touchdown" during the "Try Down." The one-point safety (which I've highlighted in red print in the table above) is an example of a "rouge" that occurs during the "Try Down." Football.com helpfully explains about "rouges" in general: A rouge is scored if the ball can not be returned out of the endzone. Fieldgoals are live and can be returned for a touchdown. Should the defending team not return the missed field goal out the end zone a single point is awarded to the kicking team. For example: The first team kicks to the second team. A player on the second team attempts to catch the ball in his team's endzone, but fumbles the ball and is subsequently tackled. The other team scores a rouge, as the ball became dead in possession of a player in his own goal area. (CFL Rulebook) If the ball is kicked into the goal area by an opponent, a single point or rouge is scored when the ball becomes dead in possession of a team in its own goal area or when the ball touches or crosses the deadline, or a side-line-in-goal, and touches the ground, a player, or some object beyond these lines; it is worth 1 point. Although rouge remains an official term, it is rarely used, and this score is almost always called a single. The term "rouge" ("red") is a holdover from the time many years ago in which a point was deducted from the score of the team failing to advance the ball from the end zone rather than being added to the score of the other team; if a team had no points this could result in their going "in the red" with a negative score.
/dev/null Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 i recall seeing one when i went to a small D3 college. was a great moment in school history when we made sportscenter for it
Rubes Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 That's pretty cool. A good trivia thing to know.
stuckincincy Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 That's a great story, Greg. I recall a game in the early '70's, Detroit and Minnesota. They both had good clubs - Det. had Greg Landry, Mel Farr, Earl McCulloch, Alex Karras, Lem Barney, Charlie Sanders etc., and Minnie had their good Bud Grant squads. The Vikes attempted a game-winning FG by Fred Cox, which was blocked and dribbled into the EZ. The players started to walk away, thinking the game was over. A rb for the vikes, Jim Lindsey, was strolling out of the end zone when he noticed a ref standing over the dead ball. Lindsey took a few steps, paused, looked back, looked again, and then picked up the ball. The ref signaled TD, and the Vikes won - knocking the Lions out of the playoffs IIRC.
ICE Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 bottom line, it was an extra attempt. It was blocked and recovered. Then fumbled into the endzone. Because it was a 1 pt Xtra attempt it is a 1 point safety.
Rubes Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 That's a great story, Greg. I recall a game in the early '70's, Detroit and Minnesota. They both had good clubs - Det. had Greg Landry, Mel Farr, Earl McCulloch, Alex Karras, Lem Barney, Charlie Sanders etc., and Minnie had their good Bud Grant squads. The Vikes attempted a game-winning FG by Fred Cox, which was blocked and dribbled into the EZ. The players started to walk away, thinking the game was over. A rb for the vikes, Jim Lindsey, was strolling out of the end zone when he noticed a ref standing over the dead ball. Lindsey took a few steps, paused, looked back, looked again, and then picked up the ball. The ref signaled TD, and the Vikes won - knocking the Lions out of the playoffs IIRC. 140068[/snapback] Now you have me confused. I thought not all blocked kicks are considered live balls. In the snowy Denver-Oakland game on Sunday, Denver tried a FG to win the game, but it was blocked. It still travelled forward, however. But I thought as long as nobody from Oakland touched the ball, it was considered dead. Isn't that what happened in the famous Dallas-Miami Thanksgiving game? Didn't Dallas block a Miami FG, but as the ball dribbled toward the Dallas end zone, that infamous brain-dead Leon Lett tried to fall on the ball for some unfathomable reason? And once he touched it, it became a live ball, and Miami recovered near the end zone, to eventually win the game? How does that work with the Detroit-Minnesota game?
stuckincincy Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 Dunno. The rules might have changed since 30 years or so ago. I'd guess that the ball was touched by Minnie at some point, unless the rules were different then. It was funny to watch, tho. When Lindsey (#21 jersey - that I remember) touched the ball and the ref signaled TD, the Vikes went nuts and flew towards the EZ. Poor Detroit - they got knocked out of the playoffs several years hence by Tom Dempsey's 63 yard FG after a kick off. You, the receiving team, can either put the ball into play or kick - punt or FG, your choice... Too bad for the Lions - in the 60's thru the mid 70's, they were a top team.
Surfmeister Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 Speaking of 1 point at a time ... I think the NBA would improve the game if they kept the 3 point shot and made slam dunks worth 1 point. If the player swings on the hoop after the dunk, the point is taken back. Are we civil or are we devo ?
Greg de'Ville Posted December 1, 2004 Author Posted December 1, 2004 bottom line, it was an extra attempt. It was blocked and recovered. Then fumbled into the endzone. Because it was a 1 pt Xtra attempt it is a 1 point safety. 140087[/snapback] Iceman, it doesn't solely happen on a PAT. It can happen on a punt return, kickoff return, or even an interception return. If a guy runs it out of his EZ, fumbles, ball goes back into the EZ and he or a teammate recover and is tackled, that's a one-point safety as well.
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