Any other strange rules?

[Patjew]

Well, for one thing, as was already answered, the ball has touched the ground and can NOT be fair caught.....

But, lets say it did not hit the ground...If yo were the receiver, and you saw eleven huge guys running straight at you from about 10 yards away, would you put your hand up in the air and then try to catch the ball? Death Wish........

Ask a question, receive the answer.

Thanks.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

With Flutie's drop kick I'm just wondering if anyone has some other rules most of us who are relatively new to the game have never heard of.

OK, I'm open to being corrected and this rule may have been changed, but I believe that the guy who catches the kickoff can make a forward pass on the return if he doesn't advance the ball forward...if I'm wrong don't act like I'm an idiot, just say "Nice try, but you're wrong."

 

[PatsFanSince74]

So weird, but Flutie's play reminded me that one of the first things my Dad taught me when he introduced me to football in the early '50's was the drop kick...

 

[shakadave]

Madden loves to mention the rule that states a team may take a free kick for a field goal after a fair catch of a punt. Or something like that.

He talks about it every other week, it seems, though I've never seen anyone try it.

Seems like an option that could actually be better than the dropkick extra point. If your opponent punts out of the end zone and it's a poor punt --- say you fair catch it at opponent's 40 --- then you could try this. In general it's a risky move because you have to

a) punt it longer than your opponent just punted it, and
b) do so with accuracy (i.e. through goal posts)

 

[Pujo]

OK, I'm open to being corrected and this rule may have been changed, but I believe that the guy who catches the kickoff can make a forward pass on the return if he doesn't advance the ball forward...if I'm wrong don't act like I'm an idiot, just say "Nice try, but you're wrong."

I strongly think you're wrong on this.

 

[AzPatsFan]

The "free kick"....

Madden loves to mention the rule that states a team may take a free kick for a field goal after a fair catch of a punt. Or something like that.

He talks about it every other week, it seems, though I've never seen anyone try it.

The way that rule works is as follows:

If you receive a kick and make a fair catch, you are eligible to do one additional thing besides start your normal offense. You can in turn kick the ball WITHOUT ANY POSSIBLE INTERFERENCE, only on the play immediately after the fair catch.

So you can attempt a field goal, without having to snap the ball or face any rush or even have the opposition try to jump to block it. Think of the kick much like a Kickoff. The only restriction I beleive is that you cannot use a kicking Tee. I don't recall if you can have a holder to hold the ball, like kickoffs sometimes do when the wind blows the ball off the Tee. I think you can. If not, then the "dropkick" method of attempting a field goal would be necessary. The dropkick unlike a punt requires the ball to touch the ground before it is hit. Some dropkickers would hit it on the rebound bounce others would hit it as it struck the ground.

That kick can be for a field goal. Theoretically, you could kick an 80 yard field goal, when you consider that some kickoffs from your own forty go out of the opposition endzone. Of course, like any field goal attempt the ball must go between the uprights ten yards deep in the endzone.

Alternatively you could punt from the spot of the fair catch. I have never seen this, but again the punt is unimpeded. Think of the "free kick" that takes place after a Safety, where the team getting a Safety scored against them must then also yield the ball with an unimpeded kick from their own twenty yard line. I suppose that if you made a fair catch deep in your zone you could elect to "free kick" an unimpeded punt hoping for a minimal return after employing a very long line drive type kick that changes the entire field position and strategy of the game.

Sort of what Belichick did with his purposeful Safety in Denver a few years ago.

 

[gomezcat]

The drop kick goes all the way back to the origin of football.

The only way you can get points by way of a kicked ball is if the ball touches the ground, hence the reason there is no tee used for place kicks for field goals and extra points in the NFL, as there is in college football.

Here's another rule yu maynot have heard of, and it involves the kicking game, also.

When a team is receiving a kickoff, or a punt, and calls for a "FAIR CATCH" they are allowed to get a "FREE KICK" from the point of where they caught the ball, by pacekicking, with the ball being held......and if it goes over the cross bar, they get three points.

This can be a good thing if, lets say, there are like just a few seonds left in the half, or the game, you are trailing by 2 points. The other team is punting from their end zone and you call for a fair catch on their 40 yard line, for example. You can then take the FREE KICK from the 40, just like a field goal, with no rush from the opposing team, and if it's good, the points count like a field goal. Same thing on a kickoff if you fair catch it.

It has been done a few times. I saw Parcells do it once. Very few people, including players, are aware of this rule.

Interesting. That is another one straight out of the Rugby rulebook, where you have a fair catch and then punt the ball away uncontested. Perhaps Il Duce knows as he has played the game (which makes him braver than me. I played it for one year at school and managed to stay away from the ball in that time!) . I think you have to punt it away, although someone should know on here. You can only call a mark (as it is known) within 22 yards of your own goal line though. I don't know if you would get 3 points for getting it through the opponents' posts from that distance...

 

[NovaScotiaPatsFan]

OK, I'm open to being corrected and this rule may have been changed, but I believe that the guy who catches the kickoff can make a forward pass on the return if he doesn't advance the ball forward...if I'm wrong don't act like I'm an idiot, just say "Nice try, but you're wrong."

You can't throw it forward, but you can "throw" it, it just has to be a lateral, like the Music City Miracle.

 

[nhpatsfan]

Great thread.
Thanks for all the new info.

 

[slam]

Here's something I've been wondering for a while:

It's entirely legal to lateral the ball to an offensive lineman, correct? I've often wondered why a team hasn't designed a pass play where an OL sneaks out of the protection scheme to receive a lateral pass. No one would possibly think of covering him.

 

[nhpatsfan]

So, you don't have to report as an eligible receiver to receive a lateral?

 

[slam]

As far as I can tell, a lateral can be received by anyone. The NFL NFL rules on laterals does not make mention of an "eligible receiver" as they do on the rules for the forward pass.

Obviously, it'd be a risky play, since an incomplete lateral pass is a fumble. But I don't think it'd be out of the realm of possibility.

 

[ilduce06410]

same here

So weird, but Flutie's play reminded me that one of the first things my Dad taught me when he introduced me to football in the early '50's was the drop kick...

i remember that, too, from the late '50s.
in rugby, one of the more interesting ways to score is to drop-kick the ball through the uprights while on the run (yep). while running the ball toward or paralell to the opponent's goal line, you can drop the ball at any time and kick it thru the uprights. not as hard as it sounds, because of the rugby ball's shape. it's worth 3 points, and i believe the american football field goal evolved from that.
there may be a football rule that lets you do that, i don't know. but with that ball shaped the way it is, getting a good bounce while on the run seems nigh impossible.

 

[ilduce06410]

something like that

Interesting. That is another one straight out of the Rugby rulebook, where you have a fair catch and then punt the ball away uncontested. Perhaps Il Duce knows as he has played the game (which makes him braver than me. I played it for one year at school and managed to stay away from the ball in that time!) . I think you have to punt it away, although someone should know on here. You can only call a mark (as it is known) within 22 yards of your own goal line though. I don't know if you would get 3 points for getting it through the opponents' posts from that distance...

i played rugby in prep school, 1965-67. these memories are quite dusty. i remember rugby as being a lot more fun than football. continuous play, no pads, no substitutions, no timeouts except for injury, and all kinds of strange ways to score.
yeah, you can fiar catch and they kick the ball away (i don't know about uncontested). what you wanted to do was to kick the ball out of bounds on, like, the opponent's 10- or 5- yard line. your opponent was then required to take the ball out from there, in the shadow of his own goal. the term was "kicking for touch". it's easy to see the resemblance to the "pooch punt". there was a time when nfl punters always tried to kick the ball out of bounds but the league outlawed that because it eliminated the runback. and the runback is one of the more exciting plays in nfl football.

 

[ilduce06410]

the old hook and ladder

Here's something I've been wondering for a while:

It's entirely legal to lateral the ball to an offensive lineman, correct? I've often wondered why a team hasn't designed a pass play where an OL sneaks out of the protection scheme to receive a lateral pass. No one would possibly think of covering him.

there is a play that resembles that, with the name above. the QB passes the ball downfield about 10 yards to a waiting WR who is facing him. the WR, instead of turning to run, laterals the ball to another player who is tear-***ing past him downfield. every time i've seen that done the lateral has been to another skill position player.
lateraling to an OL would have surprise, but that OL would have to be a fast runner. john hannah was that fast. i can't think of another patriots OL who could run a 4.9 40 or below.

 

[gomezcat]

there is a play that resembles that, with the name above. the QB passes the ball downfield about 10 yards to a waiting WR who is facing him. the WR, instead of turning to run, laterals the ball to another player who is tear-***ing past him downfield. every time i've seen that done the lateral has been to another skill position player.
lateraling to an OL would have surprise, but that OL would have to be a fast runner. john hannah was that fast. i can't think of another patriots OL who could run a 4.9 40 or below.

I'd laugh my ***** off to see one of our OLs trying something like that. Surely only one of those guys who had converted from Tight End (Robert Gallery or similar) would have a 4.9 40.

 

[slam]

I'd laugh my ***** off to see one of our OLs trying something like that. Surely only one of those guys who had converted from Tight End (Robert Gallery or similar) would have a 4.9 40.

Tom Ashworth is a converted Tight End. Imagine this call:

"Brady rolls out to the left. Looking... Looking... Fires it back across the field to... Tom Ashworth?! There's no one within 20 yards of him. Is that legal?"

 

[ilduce06410]

i remember that too

I believe that there is a rule that goes something like this, but not sure.

The team is lined up offensively. Quarterback is under center.

Center moves ball but instead of snapping it to the QB, he takes it himself, lunges forward for a yard and gets the first down.... or, for that matter, if he is capable of doing it, runs 99 yards for a TD.

Not sure about this , but Iseem torecall that rule.

i do believe you're right. it seems to me that american football rules do not require that the ball be "hiked" to start a play.
you can just walk up to the ball and pick it up to start the play.
therefore, the center can just piick it up and run.
this is another feature carried over from rugby.

as i recall, this whole football business of having a player called a center (in rugby called the 'hooker') is for protecting the QB (scrum halfback in rugby) from being stampeded by the defense. remember, blocking is not allowed in rugby, so there is no way to protect the ballcarrier.
blocking IS allowed in football. so the center assumes the 3-point stance and hands the ball to the QB thru his legs SO HE CAN PROTECT THE QB.

in rugby the scrum half takes one helluva beating every game. the only mitigating factor is that tacking in rugby is not as ferocious as it in in football.
in rugby, american football players typically get 2 types of injuries: broken noses (from sticking your head in there with no helmet) and broken collarbones (using the shoulder to tackle).

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I strongly think you're wrong on this.

You're right. I was confusing a right to "pass" the ball with the right to kick a "fair caught" ball. Thanks for correcting me (sans sarcasm)...just trying to learn more about the game...

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I believe that there is a rule that goes something like this, but not sure.

The team is lined up offensively. Quarterback is under center.

Center moves ball but instead of snapping it to the QB, he takes it himself, lunges forward for a yard and gets the first down.... or, for that matter, if he is capable of doing it, runs 99 yards for a TD.

Not sure about this , but Iseem torecall that rule.

There was a play when I was in High School that was a center sneek, the center had to snap the ball to the QB, but not release it. The QB was required to touch the ball to 'hand off' to the center. There was also a center eligible play that required an unbalanced line leaving the center uncovered on the end. Both are easily defended so I expect BB doesn't have any plans for Hochstein.