Since 2010 An NFL Runner Who Loses His Helmet Is Down Right There

Most fans know the ways an NFL play ends: a knee down, a runner out of bounds, forward progress stopped, a score. Since 2010 the rulebook has carried one more, and it does not need a defender to touch anyone.

The rule

Rule 7, Section 2, Article 1 lists the moments when an official shall declare the ball dead and the down ended. Item (s) reads simply: when a runner's helmet comes completely off.

The ball is declared dead at the spot if a runner's helmet comes completely off.

Where it came from

The NFL lists the rule among its 2010 player health and safety rule changes, alongside new protections for defenseless players that season.

How replay handles it

The rulebook's replay guidance says a runner's helmet coming off during the play is treated the same as down by contact. Replay can review the position of the ball in relation to the line to gain or the goal line at the moment the helmet came completely off. In Approved Ruling 15.69, officials rule a fumble, replay shows the helmet came completely off before the runner lost the ball, and the fumble is wiped out: the offense keeps it at the spot where the helmet came off.

The celebration trap

Approved Ruling 7.47 describes a receiver who catches a pass at the B20 with no defender near him, runs to the B5, takes his helmet off in celebration, holds it up and backs into the end zone. The ruling: no touchdown. The ball is dead at the B5, where the helmet came off. Taking it off is also taunting, a 15-yard foul enforced from that dead ball spot, so it is first-and-10 at the B20.