The Safety: The Rarest Scoring Play in Football

Since its creation, the safety has been a rare occurrence in the NFL. Although not many get scored compared to touchdowns and field goals, it’s still included in the sport for a reason.

There are several instances where a safety is awarded to one of the teams, and while it can be a little confusing, we’ll be sure to describe the ins and outs of the NFL’s safety rule, including when it was first made, why it was created, and even some facts surrounding which teams have the most safeties.

Invention of ‘the Safety’ in American Football

Safeties have been around since football’s creation, but they are not a common occurrence in modern football. Safeties typically involve a case where the offensive team downs the ball in their own endzone, resulting in 2 points for the defending team, forcing the offensive team to kick-off. If a team is attempting an extra point or two-point conversion after scoring a touchdown, and a safety occurs on the offensive team on this play, then only 1 point will be awarded to the safety team instead of 2.

In essence, there are numerous ways a safety can happen, typically from players tackling the offensive ball carrier in their own endzone, committing fouls in their own endzone, or fumbling the ball out of their endzone completely. In history, we’ve seen a safety get scored as far back as the 1920s for both college and professional level football. Although, the first official occurrence of a 1-point safety was Syracuse vs. Indiana in October, 1971, which occurred after Indiana failed to kick the point after their touchdown, while an Indiana player illegally batted the ball into the endzone.

NFL Safety Fun Facts

For starters, a safety will statistically be committed once every 14 NFL games, or about once a week. That’s not to say, that it isn’t an important factor to winning games, because it can be. Interestingly enough, there are several instances of NFL games being won off of safeties, including the Vikings vs. Rams in November of 1989 which ended in overtime from a safety. The Bears experienced something very similar in 2004 vs. the Tennessee Titans, winning the game 19-17 off a 2-point safety.

Football matches as far back as the 1940s even had both teams scoring safeties in the same game! Since the 1940s, only 9 total NFL games have had both teams score at least one or more safety, which really puts into perspective how rare they are. One of the oldest occurrences of this happening was the San Francisco 49ers vs the Chicago Bears on October 19, 1952, where both teams managed to score a 2-point safety or more. Then, the most recent game to have this happen was on November 3, 2019 between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.

In the history of all games from leagues that eventually merged into the NFL, there have only been 38 games (8 since the NFL/AFL merger) where one team scored only a safety. Some of these date as far back as November of 1923, where the Akron Pros beat the Buffalo All-Americans 2-0 off a single safety. Surprisingly, the most recent time a team has scored just one safety in a game was the Green Bay Packers 2 -27 loss to the Denver Broncos in August of 2024.

On average, there are approximately 10 to 15 safeties scored per regular season since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002. This can vary from year to year, but safeties generally account for a small fraction of the total scoring. In the 2022 season, for example, there were just 12 safeties recorded over the course of the entire regular season consisting of 272 games.

In other words, safeties tend to happen in only 4-5% of all NFL games, so getting to see one live is a treat to be savored for fans!