An NFL Team Can Kick A Field Goal With Nobody Allowed To Block It

The fair catch is one of the least interesting plays in football. What the rulebook allows immediately afterwards is one of the most interesting, and it goes unused for decades at a time.

The choice after a fair catch

Once a fair catch is made - or awarded because of fair catch interference - the receiving team has an option. It can put the ball in play with a snap, the way every other drive starts. Or it can put the ball in play with a fair catch kick: a free kick at the goal posts, taken from the spot of the catch.

It is a field goal attempt that the defense is not permitted to block.

How the kick itself works

It is a drop kick or a place kick without a tee, so in practice a holder is used, exactly as on an ordinary field goal. The two teams set up on fair catch kick lines ten yards apart, and the defense is not permitted to attempt to block it. If the kick is good, it counts as a field goal - three points.

Why you have never seen one

The catch has to happen in range, late enough in a half for a free three points to be worth more than a possession. Those two conditions rarely land together, so the play sits in the rulebook unused.

On December 19, 2024, Cameron Dicker of the Los Angeles Chargers made one against Denver. It was the first successful fair catch kick in the NFL since Ray Wersching made his in 1976 - a gap of forty-eight years.

• 01Taken from the spot of the fair catch
• 02No tee is permitted; a holder is used
• 03Teams line up on fair catch kick lines ten yards apart
• 04The defense may not attempt to block it
• 05Worth three points, like any field goal