Two-point conversion
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In American and Canadian football, a team may try to score a two-point conversion (score two points) instead of an extra point (one point) immediately after it scores a touchdown. In a two-point conversion attempt, the team that just scored must run a play from close to the opponent's goal line (5-yard line in Canadian, 3-yard line in amateur American, 2-yard line in professional American) and advance the ball across the goal line as if it were a normal touchdown. If the team succeeds, then it earns two additional points on top of the six points for the touchdown.
[edit] Adoption of rule
The two-point conversion rule has been used in college football since 1958[1] and more recently in Canadian amateur football and the Canadian Football League. In overtime situations in college football, the two-point conversion is the mandatory method of scoring after a touchdown beginning with the third overtime.
The American Football League used the two-point conversion during its ten seasons from 1960 to 1969. After the NFL merged with the AFL, the rule did not immediately carry over to the merged league. In 1994, the NFL adopted the two-point conversion rule.[2]
The NFL's developmental league, NFL Europa (and its former entity, the World League of American Football), adopted the two-point conversion rule for its entire existence from 1991 through 2007.
Six-man football reverses the extra point and the two-point conversion: because there is no offensive line in that league, plays from scrimmage are worth one point but successful kicks are worth two.
The Arena Football League has recognized the two-point conversion for its entire existence, allowing for either a play from scrimmage or a drop kick to be worth two points. (The drop kick rule is unique to arena football.)
Both the World Football League and the XFL made it a point not to institute a two-point conversion rule so as to eliminate the easy extra point kick; what would constitute a two-point conversion in other leagues only counted one point in the WFL and XFL. However, the XFL later added a rule in the playoffs that allowed the scoring team to score two (or even three) points by successfully executing a play from a point farther from the opponent's end zone (two points if the team could score from the five-yard line and three points if they could score from the ten-yard line).
[edit] Defensive two-point conversion
In American college and Canadian football (as well as, for a significant period of time, the Arena Football League, where missed extra points are rebounded back into the field of play), an intercepted two-point attempt, or one otherwise recovered by the defense, or a blocked extra point kick, can be returned to the other end zone to give the defensive team two points. The team that scored the touchdown then kicks off as normal. This is rare because of the infrequent use of the two-point conversion and the rarity of blocked extra points, and also because of the difficulty in returning the ball the full length of the field. It has proven the winning margin in some games. Only once has an individual player scored more than a single defensive two-point conversion in a game: Tony Holmes of the Texas Longhorns in a 1998 game against the Iowa State Cyclones.
The NFL and the National Federation of State High School Associations do not allow this, and a two-point attempt resulting in recovery of the ball by the defense is merely 'no good', although it can, on rare occasions, result in a one-point safety. This one-point safety is the only way a team can have a score of just one point during the course of an American football game. (College and high school football assign a 1–0 score for a forfeited game.) Canadian football, however, allows another one-point play called the single, or rouge.
[edit] References
- ^ Time "The Two-Point Conversion,", October 6, 1958.
- ^ WiseGeek.com [1] Definition.
