Originally, in NFL football, the team missing a field goal would relinquish their possession of the ball at the spot where it was last snapped. A rule change - a good one - then made it so that the team defending the kick would recieve the ball from where it was kicked, which is usually seven or eight yards up-field. With this in mind, I ask, if anyone would know, what happens in the situation that a team, on its own six yard line (or farther back) kicks a field goal and misses. Where would the offense of the opposing team get the ball? Now I am well aware that such a situation - a team attempting a 108 yard field goal (or 98, 88, etc) - will never occur (outside of some eccentric publicity stunt) but the rules should take care of all eventualities.
I assume that it’d be spotted on the one yard line, as they do when a penalty occurs in the end zone.
By the way, the situation you describe would be at least a 111-yard field goal.
As an aside: a pet peeve of mine, when it comes to football announcers, is when they refer to the “half-yard line” or the “one inch line.” There is not, nor has there ever been, a line that is one-half yard or one inch from the goal line. The lines are only at even, 1-yard intervals.
(Picky, I know, but it irks me.)
nineiron, there are lines everywhere around us, although we don’t see them “marked”. A ball that is placed 4 inches from the goal line will be recorded as 1 yard away for simplification purposes, although it is not tecnically or mathematically accurate. The announcers are accurate to say “the ball is on the 4-inch line”, because that refers to the line parallel to the goal line 4 inches away, on which the nose of the football is spotted. Just because the line is not marked does not mean that it doesn’t exist. The yard marks are there so humans can accurately determine distance.
BTW nineiron, what would you call it if the ball was on the one-inch “line”?
I don’t think we will have to worry about the situation described in the OP unless Gus the Field Goal Kicking Mule is signed by an NFL team.
As for the “one inch line”, it may exist theoretically, but if you cover a football game for a paper, an editor will change that phrase. I believe that it’s either AP or NY Times style that the only times that “Yard lines” are referred to are at the 5 yard intervals, where there is a line painted on the field. At other times, you would say the ball is at the “Team X 23” or something like that.
“One inch line” usually gets changed into “just outside the goal line” or something like that.
I would guess they would spot it at that little line where they spot the try for extra point, 2.5 yards I believe, not sure. Just my guess, and it will never happen anyway. I am sure it would be left to the judgement of the head zebra.
Alantus
I doubt that the NFL has included in the rule for missed field goals, the eventuality of what would happen if you missed a field goal attempted from your own end zone, just because it’s almost a physical impossibility for anyone to kick a football 111 yards through a set of goalposts.
You would need an incredible amount of loft to get the ball high enough that it would still be at least 10 feet off the ground when it crosses the goal posts at the other end of the field. I suppose a pro golfer could accomplish the feat with a pitching wedge and using a golf ball however.
As for extra points, in the NFL, the line of scrimmage is the 2. In high school and college, it’s the 3. I’ve never understood the difference and I thought the NFL would have moved the line back a yard when it adopted the 2 point try.
Oh, Jesus…
Yes, I know that there are “lines all around us.” The point is that the only “lines” in a football game that exist physically (and thus the ones referred to as “lines”) are made out of chalk or paint and come at one-yard intervals. This is, of course, done for the sake of simplicity. There are 100 yard lines, not an infinte amount.
By the way, I’d say “Third (or fourth, or second…) and goal from just inches away.”
Sheesh. 
Actually the preferred term for those little marks every yard is “hash marks” and not “yard lines”.
Technically, there are no painted lines on the field, just “line segments”.
Actually, they’re technically rectangles, since they have width.
Agh, now I’m so ashamed of myself, I’ll give myself a :rolleyes: just for good measure.
Shame on you all for failing to take into account the curvature of the Earth! A true line segment would run several microns underneath the grass in the middle of the field. We are of course dealing with arc segments. From now on I am going to write a letter of complaint to any announcer who fails to use the phrase “the ball is on the x arc segment.”
The most likely result would be that the opposing team gets the ball at the 1-yard line. Here’s the reasoning: If the opposing team got the ball at the point of the kick, it’d be in the end zone, hence, a touchdown. However, a touchdown cannot be scored without possession; that’s why they don’t award a touchdown on pass interference in the end zone either. (I’m not 100% sure of this, but it makes sense to me, so I’m going with it.) So the ball would be spotted on the 1.