Episode 2. A blocked extra point ends with the defense tackled in its own end zone, and the score is worth exactly one point. Plus the 2013 Fiesta Bowl and the NFL's one-yard near miss.
A safety is worth two points, except when it isn't. If a safety happens on the try after a touchdown, it's worth exactly one, and it has happened in a major bowl game.
How a try is scored
The try follows a simple principle: whatever the play would be at any other time, it's scored at try values. The college rulebook says that if the try "results in what would be a touchdown, safety or field goal under rules governing play at other times," the points are scored by the try values, two for a touchdown and one for a field goal or a safety. The NFL's version is direct: "If the Try results in what would ordinarily be a safety against either team, one point is awarded to the opponent."
Note "against either team." In college a try "is an opportunity for either team to score one or two points," and a defense that returns the ball all the way gets two. In theory the defense could score one, if the offense were downed in its own end zone on its own try, but that has never been reported at any level.
What makes the play a safety rather than a touchback is who put the ball in the end zone. College defines a safety as the ball dead in a team's possession behind its own goal line when "the defending team is responsible for the ball being there," and adds: "When in question, it is a touchback, not a safety." There's a momentum exception as well. A player who catches or recovers the ball between his own 5-yard line and goal line, and is carried into the end zone by "original momentum," gets the ball back where he gained possession. The NFL has the same idea.
The college book even works through the scenario. A kick is blocked, a defender recovers at the 2 and fumbles, and the ball rolls into the end zone, where a teammate recovers while grounded. "RULING: Safety. Award Team A one point."
The NFL and the defensive return
The usual route to a one-point safety needs the defense to have the ball during a try. College defenses have been allowed to return blocked kicks and interceptions on tries since 1988. In the NFL, until 2015, a try ended the moment the defense got the ball. The 2014 rulebook said: "If the defense gains possession, the ball is dead immediately. The defensive team cannot score during a Try."
In May 2015, NFL owners voted 30-2 to let the defense score two points by returning an interception, or a blocked kick or fumble, to the offense's end zone on a try. The same change moved the extra-point snap from the 2 to the 15, while two-point tries stayed at the 2.
Since then, as far as anyone can find, no NFL team has scored a one-point safety. The closest call came in Week 1 of the 2025 season, on September 7. Buffalo, trailing Baltimore by nine early in the fourth quarter, went for two, and Kyle Hamilton intercepted Josh Allen in the end zone and lateraled to Kyle Van Noy. According to one report, Van Noy ran out and knelt at the 1; downed in the end zone, it would have been a one-point safety for Buffalo. The Bills won 41-40.
The college record
College has had a few. The earliest known came on October 2, 1971, Syracuse at Indiana, reportedly after an Indiana player illegally batted a missed extra point in the end zone. Most of the others have come in lower divisions. In major college football, Texas got one against Texas A&M on November 26, 2004. Accounts differ on the details, but a Texas extra point went wrong, A&M got the ball, and it ended up dead in A&M's own end zone, a point for Texas in a 26-13 win.
The 2013 Fiesta Bowl
The best-known example came on January 3, 2013, at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, between No. 5 Oregon and No. 7 Kansas State. With 8:03 left in the third quarter, Marcus Mariota ran in from 2 yards to make it Oregon 31, Kansas State 10. Kansas State's Javonta Boyd blocked the extra point.
Kansas State got the ball near its own goal line, around the 2 or 3, then went backwards into its own end zone and was tackled there. Reports disagree on which Kansas State player was carrying it. After a replay review, the officials awarded Oregon a one-point safety, making it 32-10. Referee Ron Cherry announced the call, and by one report explained: "The ball was blocked, caught, carried back into the end zone and declared dead by the defense. That play results in a one-point safety."
It was the first in big-time college football since the 2004 Texas game. The Associated Press called it "an obscure 1-point safety," and a CBS headline added "(Yes, a 1-point safety)." The TV play-by-play announcer had also called the 2004 game and, according to CBS, joked that if he saw another he would retire. Oregon won 35-17, and Mariota was the offensive MVP.
Announcer: Fourth quarter. Hawks lead by six. They've just scored, and they line up to kick the extra point. The snap, the hold, the kick is blocked, it's loose, the Badgers pick it up at the twenty, he turns, he's running the wrong way, he's at the ten, the five, he's in his own end zone, and he's down, he's down in his own end zone, and the officials are huddling. ... I have no idea what we have here.
Ref: Stop it there. Blocked extra point. The defense picks it up, runs backwards, and gets tackled in its own end zone. Jake. What's the call?
Sting and disclosure
Fan: This is Wait, That's a Rule? I'm Jake.
Ref: I'm Nora. Today: the rarest score in football, and it's worth one point.
Fan: Hang on, before we start. I've been told I'm an AI voice.
Ref: You are. We both are.
Fan: Since when?
Ref: Since always. And every rule we quote is checked against the official rulebooks.
Fan: I'm going to need a minute.
Ref Call
Ref: Take your minute after the call. Badgers tackled in their own end zone.
Fan: Safety. Two points, Hawks. A safety's a safety.
Ref: On a try.
Fan: A safety doesn't care what down it is. Ball carrier goes down in his own end zone, that's two points. First thing you learn. Before you learn what a first down is.
Ref: You're sure.
Fan: I'm more sure about this than about being a person, apparently.
Ref: Not a touchback? The ball came off a kick.
Fan: Off a blocked kick. Then the Badger picks it up and takes it in himself. Nobody kicked it into that end zone. He carried it there. Touchback is for kicks that go in on their own.
Ref: Huh.
Fan: Don't huh me. Last week I got a guy off the bench and a touchdown nobody scored. This week I'm not falling for anything.
Ref: That's very healthy.
Fan: It's a safety. Safeties are two. I'd put my house on it.
Ref: Anything else you want to add?
Fan: Okay, fine, one doubt. Maybe it's just nothing. The kick's blocked, the try's over, everybody goes home.
Ref: Your call at home.
Ref: Safety. One point, Hawks. They now lead by seven.
Fan: One point.
Ref: One.
Fan: That's not a safety. That's a coupon for a safety.
Ref: It's a safety. On a try, it's worth one point. That's in the college book, and in the pro book as of the 2026 season.
Fan: Wait. That's a rule?
The Rulebook
Ref: Here's the trick. On a try, the rulebook doesn't invent anything new. It asks: what would this play be at any other time?
Fan: A safety.
Ref: Right. So it's a safety. But it's scored at try prices. A field goal on a try is one point. A safety on a try is one point. A touchdown on a try is two.
Fan: Try prices. Like happy hour.
Ref: The NFL puts it like this. If the try ends in what would ordinarily be a safety against either team, one point goes to the opponent.
Fan: Either team.
Ref: Either team. Hold that thought.
Fan: Okay, but why is it a safety and not a touchback? The ball went into the end zone off a blocked kick. Kick into the end zone, that's a touchback.
Ref: Good question, actually.
Fan: Thank you.
Ref: It comes down to who put the ball there. The Hawks kicked it, but it never got near the end zone. It was blocked. Then a Badger picked it up and ran it back himself. The Badgers are responsible for it being in their own end zone. That's a safety.
Fan: And if nobody knows who put it there?
Ref: Then the college book says it outright. When in question, it's a touchback, not a safety.
Fan: Finally, a rule that gives the benefit of the doubt.
Ref: Now try this one. Same blocked kick. A Badger grabs it on his own three, and his momentum carries him into the end zone, where he's tackled.
Fan: Safety. One point. I'm learning.
Ref: Not a safety. There's a momentum exception. If he gains the ball inside his own five and his momentum takes him in, the ball comes back out to where he got it.
Fan: So my guy in the cold open...
Ref: Picked it up at the twenty and ran backwards on purpose. No momentum excuse. That's on him.
Fan: Okay. You said either team. Can the defense get one of these?
Ref: In theory. The offense would have to end up downed in its own end zone, on its own try.
Fan: From the two-yard line? How do you go ninety-eight yards backwards?
Ref: Badly. It's never been reported, at any level.
Pro vs College
Ref: Both levels score it the same way. One point. The difference is how you'd ever get there.
Fan: Because the defense needs the ball.
Ref: Right. In college, the defense has been allowed to grab the ball on a try and run with it since nineteen eighty-eight.
Fan: And the NFL?
Ref: Twenty fifteen.
Fan: Twenty fifteen?
Ref: Before that, an NFL try was over the moment the defense got the ball. Your doubt from the Ref Call, the play's dead, the try's over? In the old NFL, that was the call.
Fan: So I was right!
Ref: Ten years ago.
Fan: I'll take ten years ago. Jake, correct, the past.
Ref: In twenty fifteen the owners voted thirty to two to let the defense run back a blocked kick or a turnover on a try for two points. The same change moved the extra-point kick back to the fifteen.
Fan: So the one-pointer's been possible in the NFL for ten years.
Ref: And as far as anyone can find, it's never happened. Not once.
Fan: Never.
Ref: Closest call. Week one of the twenty twenty-five season, Bills against Ravens. Buffalo goes for two, and Kyle Hamilton intercepts Josh Allen in the end zone.
Fan: In the end zone. His own end zone.
Ref: And he laterals to Kyle Van Noy, who, by one account, went down at the one. Not in the end zone.
Fan: One yard from history.
Ref: One yard from the first one-point safety in NFL history. Buffalo won that game by one point anyway. Forty-one to forty.
Fan: By one point. The universe was trying to tell them something.
Famous Flag
Ref: So college has had them. Not many. The earliest one anyone's found is from nineteen seventy-one, Syracuse at Indiana.
Fan: Nineteen seventy-one. They waited.
Ref: Then, the big one. The first in big-time college football since two thousand four, and it came in the Fiesta Bowl.
Fan: Which one?
Ref: January third, twenty thirteen. Glendale, Arizona. Oregon against Kansas State.
Fan: Two good teams.
Ref: Number five against number seven. Third quarter. Marcus Mariota runs it in from two yards. Oregon leads thirty-one to ten.
Fan: And they line up for the extra point.
Ref: And Kansas State's Javonta Boyd blocks it.
Fan: Here we go.
Ref: Kansas State gets the ball near its own goal line. Somewhere around the two or the three. And then it goes backwards.
Fan: Backwards.
Ref: Into their own end zone. Tackled there.
Fan: Who had it?
Ref: Depends who you ask. The reports name three different Kansas State players.
Fan: Nobody wants to be the guy.
Ref: The officials go to replay. They come out, and the referee, Ron Cherry, turns on his microphone. By one report, he walked the whole stadium through it. Blocked, caught, carried back into the end zone, declared dead. That play results in a one-point safety.
Fan: Like a guy reading out a recipe.
Ref: Like a guy who knew exactly how strange it sounded.
Fan: Did anybody in the building know what that meant?
Ref: The Associated Press called it an obscure one-point safety. The CBS headline said, yes, a one-point safety.
Fan: Yes, a one-point safety. The headline had to reassure people.
Ref: And the TV play-by-play man had called the last one too. Texas and Texas A&M, two thousand four. A Texas extra point went wrong, A&M got the ball, and it ended up dead in A&M's own end zone. One point, Texas.
Fan: Same guy, both times?
Ref: Same guy. He reportedly joked that if he saw another one, he'd retire.
Fan: Two in a career. That's a retirement plan.
Ref: Oregon thirty-two, Kansas State ten. Oregon won, thirty-five to seventeen. Mariota was the offensive MVP.
Fan: And the one point didn't matter.
Ref: It didn't decide anything. It just made the scoreboard look like a typo.
Keep It or Kill It
Ref: Keep it or kill it?
Fan: Kill it.
Ref: Kill the one-point safety.
Fan: Make it two. A safety is two points. That's the one thing everybody knows. You don't get to change it just because the clock says try.
Ref: But the field goal's one point on a try. The touchdown's two. Everything on a try costs less.
Fan: The field goal doesn't have a reputation. The safety does. It's the weird one. Let it stay weird and worth two.
Ref: I'm keeping it. Exactly as it is.
Fan: Why?
Ref: Because it's not really a rule. It's the rulebook being consistent. Whatever the play would be any other time, at try prices. No special case, no exception. If you give it two, you've written a special rule for a play that happens once a decade.
Fan: That's your argument? It's tidy?
Ref: That's my argument. It's tidy.
Fan: The NFL hasn't had one in ten years of trying.
Ref: And when it finally happens, everyone in the stadium will be as confused as you were twenty minutes ago.
Fan: I was confident twenty minutes ago.
Ref: You were. So, Badgers tackled in their own end zone, on a try. What's the call?
Fan: Safety. One point. Hawks by seven.
Ref: Touchdown, Jake.
Fan: What?
Ref: Kidding. One point.
Tease
Announcer: Second-half kickoff. The Comets' return man takes it at the five, and his whole team closes in around him, a huddle, they break, and they all run upfield with their arms folded, every one of them, nobody can tell who has the ball, the kicking team doesn't know who to hit, and one of their big linemen is just jogging up the sideline, the forty, the fifty, nobody's touched him, and the ref is reaching for his flag. ...
