Worst Rule In Football?

Mike Florio, of the website Pro Football Talk, jumped all over what he considers the worst rule in football. The cursed rule took place in last weekend's Miami Dolphins-Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason game. It broke down like this: Buccaneers rookie receiver Mike Evans appeared to have scored on a 42-yard catch-and-run touchdown. The call on the field was a touchdown but replay showed that Evans had fumbled the ball before breaking the plane. The ball landed in the end zone and then rolled out of bounds before anyone recovered it. By rule, however, it's not a touchdown but a touchback. A turnover even though the defense never gained possession of the ball.

"It's a horrible rule." -Mike Florio

Florio is right. It's a horrible rule. It's ridiculous to hand over possession of the ball to a defense that never gained possession of it. If the play had taken place anywhere else on the field, the offense maintains possession of the ball. The rule makes no sense.

I first encountered this rule during a Minnesota Vikings-Dallas Cowboys playoff game in 1996. Vikings running back Amp Lee was running free for a touchdown. Just before he was about to cross that goal line, the ball was poked out of his hands and it rolled out of the back of the endzone. I assumed that it would still be Vikings ball at the spot of the field that it was last possessed since that's what happens anywhere else on the football field. That makes sense. Nope. Cowboys ball. 20-yard line. Going the other way. The Cowboys defense did make a play. Good for them. They didn't complete the play. They never gained possession so possession shouldn't just be given to them. I discovered that day, three days after Christmas, the worst rule in football. It was also pretty much the only play that worked for the Vikings that day and even that play ended up going against them. The Cowboys took them apart. 40-15.

Worst rule in football.