Lists

When overtime wasn’t sudden death

The evolution of the overtime rule in the NFL is as follows: 1941 — Sudden-death rule was added for divisional playoff games (at the time, these were one-game playoffs to break a division tie to advance to the NFL title game) 1946 — Sudden-death was extended to the championship game

NFL fair-catch kick attempts

After a fair catch, an NFL team has the right to take a free kick from the line of scrimmage on the next play. If the kick goes through the uprights, the kicking team scores 3 points. It is also known as a "free kick field goal." What special rules apply?

Longest nonscoring plays in NFL history

Is there a list of the longest plays that didn't result a touchdown? Elias Sports Bureau probably has a list (they verified that Percy Harvin's 104-yard kickoff return was the longest nonscoring play in NFL history), but I've never seen one published. Both scrimmage (runs and passes) and nonscrimmage (returns) plays are

Winning the OT coin toss and kicking

Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'UHFFks-DRlxP7NaUzfzOOA',sig:'gHc3yhgUOKPPb7vGmaZ-aw_ON_bscz49huROmC1XRq4=',w:'594px',h:'390px',items:'1515550',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); In 2002, Detroit Lions coach Marty Mornhinweg was roundly criticized for choosing to take the wind after winning the coin toss in overtime against the Bears, and it was cited in his firing at the end of the season (a 5-27 record didn't

Longest missed field goals

As far as I can tell, there are no league-wide official records kept for length of missed field goals. The following list should be complete, however. Note that a fair number of the kicks took place in Denver. Longest missed field goal attempts, NFL Kicker Team Length Result Date How Missed? Notes Sebastian Janikowski Oakland Raiders 76 SD 28, OAK 18 9/28/2008 short Mark Moseley Washington

Palpably unfair acts

[Last updated 1/26/2025: A palpably unfair act was almost called in the NFC Championship Game.] What happens when something obviously unfair yet not specifically covered by the rules happens during a football game? The palpably unfair act rule gives the referee full discretion to decide what should happen when such events occur,