Unusual Rules of NFL You've Never Heard Of

Published on: 06 November 2020
Unusual Rules of NFL You've Never Heard Of
One of the unusual rules of the NFL

American football can be a brutal game, and players don't have an easy life on the field. But, have you ever wondered who else struggles from the first minute of the game to the final whistle? Referees. Why? Because of those crazy, hard to remember, and sometimes very rarely used rules.

The NFL Rulebook is one of the biggest ones in sports. So, imagine keeping your eyes wide open, noticing every fault, goal, time of the game, and on top of that, remembering when to apply rules that are often obsolete, obscure, and not always well known to the players.

So when you watch the NFL HD stream and notice a referee's confusing decisions, refrain from pointing out his incompetence. There is a chance you might not know all the rules of the game.

You can even see the players' puzzled expressions in close-up cameras; they also don't remember the whole NFL code of rules by heart.

If you are a fan of this sport and are interested in the curiosities that can be observed on the pitch, an exciting read awaits you. You may be surprised-- it's difficult to notice all rules applied while watching the game on TV.

Many of the rules we will mention in a moment have not been applied on the pitch for several years. Decades even. It's no surprise that many NFL fans are unaware of their existence. However, they are fascinating and worth knowing. In the article below, you can read about the most strange ones:

The Drop Kick

The drop kick is an obsolete rule that - no one knows why - is still applied in American football. A player can use a dropkick to punt the ball or kick a field goal. It was implemented in the early stages of NFL development when the ball was still around, and a player could bounce it off the ground before kicking it for better targeting. In order to end that practice, this rule was presented. Now, players can only drop the ball on their legs to kick it.

Why is it unusual today? Because the ball's shape is significantly different from what it was before - now bouncing the ball from the ground would make it impossible to predict its direction. The drop kick is thus the only possible way to put the ball into motion.

Banned Post-Touchdown Dunk

A dunk was one of the ways of celebrating a touchdown. Some think that it was banned not that long ago, but actually, this rule is an upgraded version of a different one - forbidding using a football as a prop. Among players, it was the favorite thing to do after scoring a point. That's why many are dissatisfied with this principle in the rule book.

The Fair Catch Kick

This rule evokes the greatest emotions both among players and fans. The fair-catch kick is a move performed by kicking the ball over the opponent's goal crossbar to score 3 points. It's one of the two options to play the first attempt (apart from restarting the game with a snap), which the team has the right to choose after performing a fair catch. Fair catch kick is a very rare move - only 21 (5 successful ones) have been made in NFL history, and the last successful shot was in 1976 (done by Ray Wersching of San Diego Chargers, from 45 yards).

Game Clock Running After Sacks

This is a fairly new rule as it was introduced before the 2014 NFL season. It may not be a very complicated rule, but it requires you to remember about the 2-minute mark and that it is a special phase of the game.

Under this rule, the game clock will continue to run when the quarterback sacks the ball within 2 minutes left to end the half of a game.

Thanks to that, the receivers have time to return to their positions, and the quarterback can recover from the sack. Before this rule was introduced, the referees would stop the clock by blowing their whistles.

Conclusion

Such an energetic and full of contact game needs to have a set of clear and straightforward rules. Well, in the NFL, the rules are clear and easy only on paper because they are not that easy to comprehend when the ball is in the game.

The NFL is a league that has worked on an extensive set of rules for a long time. But with so many unused principles, it's easy to forget some.

That is why it is worth reading about some curiosities from time to time, especially since you never know when the pitch situation will force the referee to implement one of them.

After familiarizing yourself with the rules above, which hardly anyone knows - feel free to call yourself a true NFL fan!

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