NFL fans were treated to the ‘rarest of rare’ circumstances on Thursday Night Football when the Los Angeles Chargers made use of a little-known rule to kickstart a brilliant comeback win.
Jim Harbaugh’s team were hosting the Denver Broncos at SoFi but found themselves 21-10 down with time almost expired at the end of the first half.
But then came a very unusual circumstance when the Broncos were called for a kick-catch interference as the clock ran out, leaving the Chargers in a position no other team has found themselves in recent years.
The call from the refs resulted in a 15-yard penalty for the Broncos and gave the Chargers a chance to do something no team had done since 1976: a fair catch kick.
Had they have been out of kicking range, Harbaugh’s team would have had to rely on a Hail Mary to end the half, but the 15-yard penalty got them just in range for Cameron Dicker to make his way onto the field.
Stepping up from 59 yards out, ‘Dicker the Kicker’ nailed one straight through the uprights to make history, scoring the longest ever fair catch kick in the NFL.
Cameron Dicker walks off the field at halftime having just nailed his 59-yard fair catch kick
Dicker made NFL history on Thursday night with his kick on the stroke of halftime in LA
A rare fair catch free kick results in a Cameron Dicker 57-yard FG for the @Chargers 🤯
It's the first free kick FG since 1976! pic.twitter.com/yb0cyPuKnR
— NFL (@NFL) December 20, 2024
Incredibly, the last ‘fair catch kick’ also came courtesy of the Chargers 48 years ago, when Ray Wersching got the points.
On social media, fans were left baffled as they tried to work out the rule, while many praised the quick-thinking of Chargers special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken.
On X, one fan joked that LA need to give him a ‘lifetime contract’ for his knowledge of the rulebook.
Another added: ‘That’s why Ryan Ficken is my goat. they showed him on the sidelines teaching Harbaugh that rule. Harbaugh was about to send Herbert out before the timeout.’
Ray Wersching was the last man to score a fair catch kick in the NFL – way back in 1976
Others, meanwhile, were just trying to get their heads around the rule, with one fan telling a funny story about how he first learned of it.
‘My brother-in-law, a sports fan but not an obsessive like I am, told me about this fair catch free kick rule on Christmas Eve last year,’ he wrote. ‘I’d told him I’d never heard of it, and I seriously doubted it was real. Apparently, he was right, and I was mistaken. That’s just wild!’
Dicker’s successful kick reduced the Chargers’ deficit to 21-13 at the half, and sparked a brilliant second-half comeback for the home team.
In the end, the Chargers ran out 34-27 winners over Denver to take their record to 9-6 for the season, all-but confirming their place in the postseason.
[H/T Daily Mail]
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