I’m not a football fan by any stretch of the imagination. I understand the general rules but anything out of the ordinary will probably go right over my head.
This article from today’s Topeka Capital-Journal front sports page has me a bit baffled. Seems a Salina high school team beat a local rival on a little-practised play: the free kick.
Here’s (hopefully) the pertinent info from the article from those who don’t want to follow the link:
I don’t know if that’s enough information to go on or if you’d have to see the actual play to judge.
What exactly happened? Or, if there’s not enough information, what’s the most likely scenario based on the article? Is a free kick relatively hard to score with? If not, why is it rarely used? And why is it called a “free kick”? Is a team limited by when and where they can use the free kick rule? Does the coach usually tell the receiver to kick if time runs out or is that left up to the person who has the ball? Is a free kick worth the same amount of points as a field goal (I think that’s what you call it)?
It sounds to me like you get one last play if you call a fair catch from a punt when time runs out. This is why the coach wanted the punter to boot it out of bounds - so the quarter ends. But the receiver made a running “fair catch” to give his team one last shot.
This is probably just a rule in Kansas, but I’d be interested in finding out the truth though.
So it looks like this is allowed in both high school and the NFL, but not college. I’m unsure what is meant by the original “free kick”, maybe after someone gets a safety, or from the kickoff directly? So possibly, in this game, there was a safety so the team had to punt, resulting in the free kick to win the game.
Actually you can try to block a “fair catch kick” (that’s what the NFL calls it), but it’s like a kickoff and the defense has to stand at least 10 yards away from the spot of the kick.
The kicker kicked the ball off a tee (a holder makes it a “place kick”, I guess) from the spot of the fair catch, not ten yards behind the fair catch spot. The opposing team cannot rush to block the kick.
Bizarre.
One notable free kick in NFL history was a 52 yard one made by Paul Hornung of the Packers against the Bears back in 1962. It was the first free kick field goal in the history of the Packers. I can’t find any record of one after that…
In 1999 Chan Gailey bungled an opportunity for one against the Atlanta Falcons because he didn’t know that he could choose to extend the period when time expired at half time.
Sounds like a relic from rugby union. The Mark used to be available from anywhere on the field but is now restricted to within the cathing team’s 22. The stats for old players often list how many goals from a mark each player scored.
Just out of interest, is it still possible to score with a dropkick (like a punt but the ball must hit the ground before being kicked) in American football? I’d heard that it used to be a rare but legal play, but with changes to the shape of the ball making it almost impossible to dropkick accurately. Practicalities aside, is it still a valid play?
In high school football, all kickoffs and field goal and extra point attempts are kicked off a tee.
Dropkicks are still legal in American football, but only from behind the line of scrimmage. They would be nearly impossible with today’s footballs as it would be extremely difficult to get a good bounce with them.
In the old days of football, you could dropkick from anywhere on the field, so in theory if a team was trailing by 2 late in the game they could try to advance the ball down the field and then have the ball carrier attempt a dropkick before he got tackled.
The NFL rule is as follows: (Rule 10, Section 1, Article 6)
Obviously in 99.99% of all cases one chooses (b). Exceptions occur toward the very end of a half or game. The “fair catch kick” is one form of “free kick”, along with kickoffs and kicks after a safety. For all free kicks, the two teams line up ten yards apart like on a kickoff.
Note that while a punt may be used as a fair catch kick, Rule 3 provides that only a placekick or drop kick may be used to score points (that is, to kick a field goal).
College football dropped the fair catch kick option in 1951. I imagine high school football varies by state, and obviously Kansas has a rule very similar to the NFL.
Because of the “10 yards” thing, in effect, there is no defense allowed. Also of note is the wording “a snap or a fair catch kick” which leads me to believe you have to punt it through the uprights. Or maybe you can use a holder.
Alas, Ellis, you’re citing the bowdlerized “digest” or “summary” of its rules that the NFL publishes on its web site. The NFL, for reasons known only to itself and God, refuses to publish its rules online. The full text of the rule book, however, makes clear that kickoffs, kicks after safety, and fair catch kicks are all different types of “free kick”. All three follow the same general plan, with the teams lining up 10 yards apart and one side kicking the ball. However, there are different rules for each variety–for example, you can use a tee on a kickoff or safety kick, you can punt for a safety kick or fair catch kick, you can score a field goal on a fair catch kick (but only by placekick or drop kick), and on and on.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. For years now I thought I was going insane every time I read the NFL “rules”. I always thought to myself “this can’t be the official rule…it leaves way too much room for interpretation” regarding countless rules.
You have restored my confidence that the NFL rules were not, in fact, written by some commissioner’s 8 year-old nephew.
A free kick could have occured in last Monday’s NFL game.
The Giants led with a kickoff, just 11 seconds remaining. Instead of kicking short along the ground in the field of play, requiring the Cowboys to use most of the remaining time on the return, the kick went out of bounds. One play then led to the tieing field goal and the Giants won in overtime.
Each Giants player and fan was authorized a “free kick” toward the kicker.
A free kick could have occured in last Monday’s NFL game.
The Giants led with a kickoff, just 11 seconds remaining. Instead of kicking short along the ground in the field of play, requiring the Cowboys to use most of the remaining time on the return, the kick went out of bounds. One play then led to the tieing field goal and the Giants lost in overtime.
Each Giants player and fan was authorized a “free kick” toward the kicker.
The last successful one for a field goal was in 1937 and the last one for an extra point was in 1940. Sure would be fun to see someone try it as a lark in a preseason game or something.
It was once within the rules to drop kick for 3 points from anywhere on the field, even beyond the line of scrimmage. This vestige of football’s rugby heritage was only expunged from the NFL rule book in 1991.
Former Atlanta Falcons kicker Mick Luckhurst – a native of the UK – attempted drop-kick FG attempts from time to time during preseason games in the mid-1980s. IIRC, he usually missed, but made a few.
So as I’m reading these answers, is a 50-yard free kick by a high school boy considered a one-in-a-million shot? Would he rightly be considered a hero by the HS football fans, not neccesarily because he won the game but because of the difficulty of the kick?
Thanks for all your input BTW. And yes, I realize that football is a different game outside the US, but I checked and there doesn’t seem to be a varsity soccer team at either school.
It’s certainly quite possible to drop kick a modern football: it’s done successfully once or twice a year in Arena football, as they give 4 points for a drop kicked field goal, and 2 points for a drop kicked PAT.
Of course, the fact that it’s played on turf makes it a bit easier, I’m sure, and the fact that there’s no benefit in the NFL for doing it “the hard way” means it’ll probably never happen again. But if someone practices with a modern football, a drop kick is quite possible to make.
