In a situation where a team receiving a kickoff has to score, teams do not seem to do very well lateralling the ball, the “Memphis Miracle” by the Titans last year being the exception that proves the rule.
Do you think that a professional Rugby team could score against an NFL kickoff special team? I guess we should assume that the Rugby team is wearing NFL gear (but has practiced in it and is used to it). Maybe we should break it down into two cases: one where the team kicking off knows who they are kicking it to (For example, an NFL team goes on tour to Australia, and they have an exhibition contest of this type), and another where they do not (An NFL coach develops in secret a “Special” Special team of rugby players for just this eventuality).
I know the consequences of loosing the ball are much worse in NFL football than rugby, but I would still like to see more laterals in the NFL!
Ahh…finally a question in my line of expertise :).
But to answer your question, I don’t believe that endless laterals would create a touchdown a signicant percentage of the time. Yes, rugby players practice lateral passing until their arms fall off, along with offensive allignments to use them. However, even in a rugby game, most scores wouldn’t be off of a kickoff (what we’d call “first-phase possession”) but are mostly earned through getting a few yards here and there, retaining the possession, and eventually capitalizing on the pressure placed upon the defence. Generally, the “hot potato” doesn’t work all too well, and just like in the 2nd law of thermodynamics, the more activity you have, the more likely things are to go wrong!
So if it wouldn’t work in an actual rugby match, I doubt that it would work in the NFL. Perhaps you’d see a couple of laterals, but it’s far more likely that the kick coverage will either reach you or else a stupid pass will end up fumbled around on the ground somewhere. Yes, what happened with Tennessee was magical, but if you ran that play 100 times, they’d probably be stopped 95 of them!
“The Play” as it is known in American College Football was a rugby style play. That’s when Cal used five laterals to return a kickoff on the last play of the game to beat Stanford.
Many other teams have tried such a maneuver and I’ve never seen anyone succeed. Teams are watching for it and usually everyone is covered.
In the NFL, a multiple lateral play is very risky in the last two minutes of a game because once the ball hits the ground only the player who lateraled the ball can advance it.
The Miracle in Memphis was just one lateral and it was effective because the kicking team made the mistake of converging on the return man instead of staying in their designated lanes that they are supposed to follow.
Ah, but an NFL game is not a rugby match. I believe the reason the defensive line is so spread out in rugby is because no blocking for the ball carrier is allowed. When blocking is allowed, the defense has to converge more on the ball, opening up the possibilities of a lateral.
Anyway, If the NFL ever visits Australia and I happen to be there, I will pay to go in and see the demonstration/competition I propose.