Safety (football)

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.

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 the 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 steps on the end line.

Safeties are somewhat more common in Canadian football (see below).

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, dropkick 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 dropkick is virtually unheard of in practical play. Other rules are the same as on a kickoff. 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.

Elective safeties

Occasionally, the team with the ball may concede a safety intentionally. This is quite common on third down in Canadian football, since a punt from the end zone would give the other team much better field position than a kickoff from the 35-yard line would. Elective safeties are not seen often in four-down football. American teams would only take a safety on purpose if they were winning by 3-7 points very late in the game and didn't want to risk giving up a touchdown on a punt from their own end zone.

Another situation is with 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.

Safeties on conversion attempts

In U.S. college and Canadian football, a team scores two points if it gets control of the ball on a conversion attempt by the other team and returns it all the way into the other team's end zone. For example, say Team A scores a touchdown to go ahead 6-0. A player on Team B then blocks Team A's extra point attempt, picks up the ball and runs into Team A's end zone. The score is now 6-2, and Team A kicks off to Team B from its own 35-yard line (as it would have if there had not been a safety).

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.

The NFL also has a one-point safety rule on conversion attempts. However, a one-point safety would be almost impossible in the NFL, since the ball becomes dead immediately if the defense gains possession of it during a conversion attempt.

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.

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.

External links

American football terminology | Canadian football terminology

Safety (Football)

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