For the love of logic, put the touch back in touchdown
It’s a contact sport. Yet players can score without contacting the end zone. Why is that?
All of these plays were ruled touchdowns. Yet never did the ball or ball carrier touch the end zone. From 2020 to 2023, fans witnessed this nearly 300 times.
Clockwise from top left: NBC Sports, Fox Sports, CBS Sports. Fox Sports
Airspace touchdowns 1) occur too often (almost 1 in every 4 games), 2) are farcical to watch, and 3) diminish the game we love. Fans deserve better.
Airspace touchdowns (ATDs) are:
Fix the Rule NEWS of the WEEK
During 55 NFL preseason games this summer we spotted seven airspace touchdowns (and an eighth that is not included in our compilation reel).
Inspiring? Only if you get all wound up over pure lameness.
To us, all of them are logic-defying
head-scratchers, and they’re just so unsatisfying to boot. Check out the still image of the Saints’ Spencer Rattler (18), who is given credit for six points for merely waving the ball above the pylon (which, BTW, is positioned out of bounds) but never contacting the designated scoring area, more commonly known as the end zone. That just doesn’t look like a “football play” to us.
So we are back for our fifth season of howling at inadequate, unworthy, and downright ugly scoring plays that exist only because of a flawed rule that we wish would somehow, someday, get changed.
Welcome back.
What if break-the-plane logic was applied to other games?
Hole in one
The ball is clearly breaking the plane of the cup, so it’s in. Put me down for an ace.
Home run
Who cares if the ball is in the glove? It broke the fence’s plane on the fly.
Bucket
Your corner three rimmed out? Easy. It dipped below the rim, so it’s good.
Cornhole
That bag is breaking the plane of the hole. We’ll take three points.
Ringer
Look, the shoe is breaking the plane of the stake. Three points for me.
Inside Fix the Rule
In brief
What we’re up to, in as few words as we can manage.
Concept
Learn about the Super Bowl touchdown that lit our inquisitive fuse.
New rule
Few rules are perfect, but we say our idea is better than the existing rule.
Pylons
What exactly are these orange foam antennae intended to do?
Ratings
Not all ATDs are equal. The ugliest of them earn The Full McEnroe.