Single (football)

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In Canadian football, a single or single point is scored when the ball is kicked into the end zone by any legal means, other than a successful field goal, and the receiving team does not return, or kick, the ball out of its end zone. It is also a single if the kick travels through the end zone or goes out of bounds in the end zone without being touched, except on a kickoff. After conceding a single, the receiving team is awarded possession of the ball at the 35-yard line.

Singles are not awarded if a ball is downed in the end zone after being intercepted in the end zone, or fumbled outside the end zone, or if the kick hits the goalposts, or when a kickoff goes into the end zone and then out of bounds without being touched. In all these cases the defending team is awarded possession of the ball at the 25-yard line.

Singles do not exist in American football. In the National Football League, punts that go into the end zone are touchbacks, and the other team gets the ball on its 20-yard line. When a field goal is attempted and is missed, the other team may return it as if it were a kickoff (this is rare, in addition the ball must be caught in the air), or the defending team may get the ball at the spot of the kick.

The American Indoor Football Association recognizes the single, but only when a kickoff is kicked through the uprights (where it is frequently called an UNO)

There is some controversy over the fact that a team that misses a field goal attempt in Canadian football can still score a single: some fans, particularly those accustomed to American football, see it as a reward for failure. However, Canadian football was always intended to be a game where field position was the key to success; thus the single reflects the defending team's inability to return to a position outside of their own end zone, something which in American football they would be given for free. The Canadian Football League has discussed abolishing the single, although proposals to do so as recently as 2005 have always been soundly rejected.

In the official rules, the single point is also called a rouge, but this term has all but vanished from everyday use. The word is French for "red", and originated at a time when the point was subtracted from the defending team's score (occasionally giving a team negative points, putting them in the red).^{[citation needed]}