Safety (football)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In American football and Canadian football, safety can refer to:
- two positions in the most-common defensive backfield setup, the strong safety and the free safety, or
- a type of score, worth one or two points.
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[edit] Safety scores
A safety, also known in Canadian football as a safety touch, is the act by which one team gains two points when an opponent who possesses the ball:
- is tackled in his own end zone
- runs out of bounds in or behind the end line of his own end zone
- fumbles the ball out of bounds in the end zone or across the end line
- downs (kneels or falls on) the ball in the end zone (an intentional safety)
- commits certain penalties, such as holding or intentional grounding, in the end zone.
If a player on the defense gains possession of the ball in their own end zone through a fumble recovery or interception and is tackled there, it is a touchback, not a safety. If he makes an interception outside of the end zone, his momentum carries him into the end zone and he is tackled there, his team gets the ball at the spot of the interception. However, if he gets the ball outside of the end zone and retreats on his own initiative into his own end zone, where he is tackled, it is a safety for the other team. The same rules apply on punts and kickoffs.
An official signals a safety by holding his hands above his head, palms touching.
Safeties are by far the rarest of scores in American football. No National Football League team has ever recorded more than four in one season. Safeties usually occur when the offense starts a play close to its own end zone. In such cases, offenses often run very conservative, low-risk plays to avoid a safety. However, sometimes the defense tackles a ball-carrier before he can escape the end zone or sacks a quarterback trying to throw out of his own end zone. Safeties can also occur on punts if the receiving team blocks the kick, the snap is botched, or the punter accidentally or intentionally steps on the end line.
Intentional safeties are rare, but not unheard of. For a discussion of this strategy, see the "Elective safeties" section below.
Safeties are somewhat more common in Canadian football (see below).
[edit] Free kicks
In American football, safeties are followed by a free kick — by the team that 'allowed' the safety — from its own 20-yard line. That team can choose to punt, drop kick or placekick the ball to the other team (as they are not allowed to use a tee, which would be a kickoff). Normally, the team chooses to punt; the drop kick is virtually unheard of in practical play. Other rules are the same as on a kickoff, including rules for onside kick attempts. In Canadian football, the team that scored the safety can elect either to take the ball at its own 35-yard line or to make the other team kick off from its own 35-yard line.
[edit] Elective safeties
Occasionally, the team with the ball may concede a safety intentionally, as a game strategy, which implictly explains the origin of its name.
The elective safety is quite common on third down in Canadian football, since a punt from the end zone would give the receiving team much better field position than a kickoff from the 35-yard line would.
The elective safety is not seen often in four-down football, particularly since the development of the forward pass tended to neutralize the temporary 20-yard field position advantage. American teams typically only take a safety on purpose if they are winning by 3 to 8 points very late in the game and do not want to risk giving up a touchdown on a blocked or muffed punt from their own end zone. Although this is considered good game strategy, it is rare simply because the situation does not arise very often.
Another situation can arise from a loose ball in the offense's own end zone (caused by a fumble or a blocked punt). An offensive player will often intentionally kick or bat the loose ball out of the end zone, to cause a safety. This prevents the defensive team from getting a chance at a recovery in the end zone and a touchdown.
[edit] Safeties on conversion attempts
College football's rules allow either team to score a one-point safety after a touchdown. Say that Team B blocks Team A's extra-point attempt, and a player on Team B picks up the ball on the 1-yard line. Looking for an opening, the player with the ball runs backwards two yards, where he is tackled. Team A receives one point, and the score is now 7-0. Team A then kicks off from its own 35-yard line. This has happened at least once before, in a game between Texas and Texas A&M in 2004.
Another scenario would be if Team B had blocked the kick and began to run it back for two points, but at the last moment a pursuer from Team A knocked the ball loose. If he were to pick up the ball, run into his own endzone and be tackled, Team B would score one point, and the score would then be 6-1. Not only has this never happened, but it probably never will given the rarity of a block, a last second fumble, and a bad choice on the part of whoever recovered the fumble. It is notable, however, for being the only possible way to finish a game with a score of exactly one point in a game of American football.
The NFL also has a one-point safety rule on conversion attempts. According to former NFL referee Jerry Markbreit:
"Under NFL rules, an unsuccessful try-for-point is dead if kicked, but while attempting a two-point try, it is possible for a safety to be ruled if the defensive team forces the ball back into their own end zone and they recover. One point would be awarded, instead of the two points that are normally awarded for safeties."[1]
This did occur once in a 1948 AAFC preseason game, the final score was 27-1 with the one point safety being intentional.
[edit] Records
The NFL team record for safeties in a game is three, by the Los Angeles Rams against the New York Giants on September 30, 1984. The individual record is two, by the Rams' Fred Dryer against the Green Bay Packers on October 21, 1973.
Ted Hendricks and Doug English share the NFL career record for safeties with four.
Only two NFL games have ever ended in overtime with a safety: In 1989 when the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Los Angeles Rams 23-21 when Mike Merriweather blocked a punt into the end zone, and in 2004 when the Chicago Bears defeated the Tennessee Titans 19-17 when Billy Volek fumbled in his own end zone and a teammate recovered it but was unable to get out of the end zone. A 1989 preseason game also ended in an overtime safety.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association does not keep individual statistics for safeties. Three Division I-A teams have scored three safeties in a game: Arizona State in 1996; North Texas in 2003; and Bowling Green in 2005.
