# Fighting my football ignorance **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 11, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-my-football-ignorance/796080 "2017-09-11T20:01:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-my-football-ignorance/796080/1 "2017-09-11T20:01:40Z")
I’m a football fan but my knowledge of the game has many holes in it. So what happens in this scenario I imagined. A team has just scored a touchdown. They get in formation to kick an extra point. The kick goes up, hits the upright, and is deflected back into the playing field. Before it hits the ground, a player on the kicking team catches the ball and runs it into the endzone. Does this count as a two point conversion? Or is the play ruled dead at some point? Or is it simply impossible to score a two point conversion once you commit to an extra point kick? Even less likely scenario: The ball goes up and gets deflected and a player of the other team catches it. He’s able to run all the way down the field into his own endzone. Is that a touchdown? ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-my-football-ignorance/796080/2 "2017-09-11T20:10:47Z")
I think on the kick hitting the uprights, the play is immediately dead. Other recoveries by the defensive team (interception, fumble) can be run back for a defensive 2 - pointer. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-my-football-ignorance/796080/3 "2017-09-11T20:33:19Z")
Rule 7, Section 2, Article 1-h > [@](#): > > An official shall declare the ball dead and the down ended: > > h. when any legal or illegal kick touches the receivers’ goal posts or crossbar, unless it scores a field goal (see 9-4-2) Rule 9, Section 4, Article 2 > [@](#): > > ARTICLE 2. KICK TOUCHES RECEIVERS’ GOAL POSTS > If a missed field goal or try, or a punt, has touched the receiver’s goal post, uprights, or crossbar, the ball is dead in the receiver’s end zone, and all customary rules pertaining to punts, missed field goals, and tries apply. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-my-football-ignorance/796080/4 "2017-09-11T21:50:03Z")
I do wonder what the rule was when the NFL had the posts on the goal lines… ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-my-football-ignorance/796080/5 "2017-09-11T22:12:33Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I do wonder what the rule was when the NFL had the posts on the goal lines… The rules regarding a kick hitting the _receiving team_’s goal post have always been the same as today–the ball is dead. (Except of course that if it caroms on through the kick is good.) _However_, when the posts were on the goal line, it was possible to punt out of the end zone and _hit your own goal posts_. From 1933 through 1945, either a pass or a punt which struck your own goal post was a safety. The Cleveland (soon to be LA) Rams won the 1945 championship game, 15-14, with help from a safety when Washington threw a pass which bounced off their own upright. The following season, in reaction, the pass safety was eliminated. The punt safety remained on the books I believe until the goal posts were moved in 1974, and a goal post punt safety was recorded as late as 1966. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-my-football-ignorance/796080/6 "2017-09-12T02:56:43Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > . . . The Cleveland (soon to be LA) Rams won the 1945 championship game, 15-14, with help from a safety when Washington threw a pass which bounced off their own upright. . . . Was it Kirk Cousins?