Rules of the Game


Thought I'd start a thread on bizarre, or at least somewhat cryptic, football rules. Here's one for you...

In college a player can catch his own pass. So, in the red zone play, Seth Green could roll out for a run and before he gets to the line of scrimmage toss the ball up in the air, catch it again a step later, and get credit for both a passing TD and a receiving TD all in the same play.

I haven't read the thread yet, but Brad Johnson did this for the Vikings in a game. And I had him on my fantasy football team and got both a passing and catching TD there too! Granted his was deflected by the defensive line. Not sure what the rule is in the NFL.
 

This thread reminds me of the first time Nebraska played us at TCF bank when the joined the conference.

Their ballcarrier was at the 3 or 4 yard line about to score a TD and then before he crossed the goal line, fumbled the ball and the ball rolled into the end zone and then out of bounds.

The refs gave Nebraska the TD because the rule is that if the ball is fumbled out of bounds, the ball is placed at the spot where the ball went out of bounds. Because it went out of bounds in the end zone, it was a TD.

I think I've seen plays like this before where the refs didn't give them the TD.

The rule has been always that if you fumble forward into the end zone you are going to, and it goes out of bounds, its a touch back for the defensive team and they get it at the 20.
 

The rule has been always that if you fumble forward into the end zone you are going to, and it goes out of bounds, its a touch back for the defensive team and they get it at the 20.

Wasn't the case for us when we played Nebraska.
 

Wasn't the case for us when we played Nebraska.

You have the play wrong.

It was for a FIRST DOWN, not a touchdown.

QB pitches the ball on an option back to the running back, who muffs it and accidentally kicks it forward out of bounds, but past the first marker.

Everyone thought it would be brought back to the spot of the "fumble", but technically it isn't a fumble when you drop a pitch. So, it was ruled a first down.

To which I have always wondered why a team wouldn't pitch a ball to a running back and have him "accidentally" kick it 25 yards forward and out of bounds.
 








Here's another one...

If you fair catch a punt or a field goal, you can attempt a free kick (like a kick off) and if it goes through the uprights you get 3 points.
 

... and another one that I think is legal, maybe not practical, but it's legal

On a punt, it's fairly common for most of the lineman on the other team to not put on much of a rush, they drop back to set up the return. If that happens, instead of kicking it high and long, drill it low and hard into any player that's standing just on the other side of the line of scrimmage (preferably one that's turned his back to the play and is starting to move downfield to set up the return). As long as the ball hits him, then it's live. If you recover it, it's an automatic first down.
 
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Marcus Mariota catches his own TD pass.
 

Here's another one...

If you fair catch a punt or a field goal, you can attempt a free kick (like a kick off) and if it goes through the uprights you get 3 points.

We lost a game in HS to this. Game ended 3-0 (no joke).
 

Here's another one...

If you fair catch a punt or a field goal, you can attempt a free kick (like a kick off) and if it goes through the uprights you get 3 points.

Teams with good kickers and bad offenses should utilize this more.
 

What's the rule on that? Is it that he caught the punt behind the line of scrimmage and thus could advance it?

yep that's it....and if you ever watch Aussie rules football this is a simple pass for one of them, like throwing in the backyard to you and me

the weird thing was using it in that situation and not at a critical moment
 

The Nebraska touchdown/first-down whatever discussion basically is the rules topic that annoys me the most.

I submit that the offense should NEVER be able to advance a fumble that travels forward. It would make the cleanest rule: fumble = lateral.

Instead there's a whole kloodge of rules about 2 minutes left in the game (nfl), 4th down, PAT, only the fumbler can recover, blah, blah, blah. What the heck? No advancing a forward fumble. period.
 

Is there a rule saying you have to wear your own number and jersey when playing in a game, or that you can't switch numbers during the season? Just to mess with WisconSIN, all our players should switch jersey numbers just before we play them.
 




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