Cameron Dicker and the Los Angeles Chargers made NFL history with a 57-yard ‘Fair Catch Kick’, when there was no time left on the scoreboard to end the first half, in the game they won 34-27 against the Denver Broncos at SoFi Stadium on ‘Thursday Night Football’.
Dicker’s 57-yard fair-catch-kick after a free catch is the longest in NFL history (surpassing Paul Hornung’s 52-yarder for Green Bay in 1964).
“The extremely strange ‘fair catch free’ rule that the Chargers used to score three points at halftime,” the NFL posted on its social networks.
It is the first kick of this type seen in the NFL since Ray Wersching made a 45-yard kick in 1976, also for the Chargers.
The last nine fair catch kick attempts that the NFL experienced were failures.
‘Elias Sports Bureau’ reports that the last fair catch kick attempt occurred in 2019, when Joey Slye missed from 60 yards out.
It’s my favorite rule in American football.
Jim Harbaugh
“It’s my favorite rule in football,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh acknowledged of a rule dubbed “the rarest of the rare.”
How was the Fair Catch Kick with which Dicker and the Chargers made NFL history?
Derius Davis was contacted on the previous play, receiving a fair catch interference flag going 15 yards with no time remaining in the second quarter.
Under NFL rules, the Chargers had the option of opting for a free-kick field goal, performing a Hail Mary from scrimmage or taking a knee.
They chose the first and ‘Dicker The Kicker’, who already has 16 field goals from at least 50 yards, made history.
What is the Fair Catch Free Kick rule that is rarely seen in the NFL?
According to NFL rules, the ‘fair catch free kick’, a play that is rarely attempted in American football, consists of a team that has just made a catch can attempt a ‘free kick’ (worth three points) from the reception venue.
Before the kick the opposing team must be aligned at least 10 yards from the ball and the kick itself can be attempted as a ‘kick’ or ‘drop kick’.
