Every safety … ever

The bookkeeping for most scoring plays is clear, simple, and consistent: the type of play, the scoring player, the passer (if applicable), and the yardage. Safeties are an exception; at best, the box score line will show the tackler and the player safetied; at worst, they’ll read something like “Safety, Player ran out of end zone.”1 Yes, I know. Imagine you weren’t familiar with turn-of-the-century punters.

The sortable, filterable table below provides consistent details on each and every safety that has happened in a regular or postseason NFL2 Unlike Pro Football Reference, the NFL does not recognize statistics from the 1946-49 AAFC, so the seventeen AAFC safeties are not included here. game, and can be used to answer questions like what player has been safetied the most (Jeff George, 9); which safety lost the most yardage (Jim Marshall’s wrong-way fumble return, 66); or which safeties were intentional (just search for “intentional safety” under Play Type).

A few notes:

  • Links boxscore video
  • Teams list the team scoring the safety first.
  • Time is the time remaining in the quarter after the safety.
  • Score is the score after the safety, with the scoring team listed first.
  • Play Type will indicate the intent of the play and the method of scoring. A run or sack with nothing else listed indicates a tackle in the end zone.
  • Yds is the yards lost from line of scrimmage or from the change of possession (if applicable).
  • Scorer is the player officially credited with the safety (the NFL’s official statistics go back to 1932). Safeties on plays like split sacks and fumbles out of bounds are typically not credited to any individual player, but scoring has not been consistent from play to play.
  • Against is the player who created the safety, either by being tackled in the end zone, fumbling out of the end zone, or committing a penalty in the end zone.

Some rule changes with an impact on safeties:

  • 1946: The Sammy Baugh Rule: the penalty for passes off a team’s own goal post is reduced from a safety to loss-of-down.
  • 1955: If a pass is intercepted within the defense’s 5-yard line and momentum carries the interceptor into his own end zone, the next play begins at the spot of the interception. (This happened twice in 1953; I’m not sure why the NFL waited an extra year to change the rule.)
  • 1974: The goalposts are moved off the goal line to the back of the end zone, eliminating the possibility for them to get in the way of a punt (this last happened in 1966).
  • 1978: The penalty for intentionally grounding the ball from one’s end zone is now a safety.
  • 1986: The Lewis Billups Rule: the 5-yard limit on a interceptor’s momentum into his own end zone is eliminated.
  • 1991: Fumbles out of bounds after a team takes possession of the ball in its own end zone are now treated as touchbacks, not safeties.
  • 1994: The two-point conversion makes intentional safeties less likely (especially up 10 points).
  • 2001: The Marquez Pope Rule: the momentum exception for interceptors is extended to recoverers of fumbles and other loose balls.

Footnotes

  • 1
    Yes, I know. Imagine you weren’t familiar with turn-of-the-century punters.
  • 2
    Unlike Pro Football Reference, the NFL does not recognize statistics from the 1946-49 AAFC, so the seventeen AAFC safeties are not included here.