NFL's mysterious one-point safety: The bizarre scoring play that's never happened and how it finally could

If you've watched the NFL for any length of time, you've almost certainly seen every possible scoring play.

Well, except for one, and that's because it's never happened before: the one-point safety. 

I know what you're thinking, and yes, a safety is usually worth two points. But there is a situation where it's only worth one point, and it has NEVER happened in the NFL. 

One reason why is because they weren't even possible for most of the league's 106-year existence. A one-point safety can only happen on a two-point conversion, and the NFL didn't adopt the two-point conversion until 1994. But even then, the one-point play still wasn't possible. 

Why the one-point play is now possible

For the first 20 seasons of the two-point conversion, only the offense could score on a two-point attempt: Teams either scored two points or the play was dead. In 2015, the NFL approved a rule that gave the defense the ability to score on a two-point conversion. Under the new rule, the defense can now return an interception or a fumble for two points, and when that rule was added, it also opened the door for the one-point safety. 

Here's the official wording from the NFL rulebook: 

"If the Try results in what would ordinarily be a safety against either team, one point is awarded to the opponent," the rulebook states. 

The rule has been in place for 11 seasons, and we still haven't seen a one-point safety, which tells you just how improbable this exact play is. 

How close we've come to seeing a one-point safety, and why it may soon happen

It's not easy to get a safety during the normal course of a game and it's almost impossible to get one on a two-point attempt, but it can happen. As a matter of fact, we almost saw the first one in NFL history in September during a Week 1 game between the Bills and the Ravens. 

In that game, Baltimore's Kyle Hamilton picked off Josh Allen in the end zone on a two-point play. If Hamilton had made the decision to fall to the ground, then the play would have been dead, but instead, he ran it about two feet out of the end zone before pitching it back to Kyle Van Noy, who was still in the end zone. If the Bills had been able to tackle Van Noy at that point, then Buffalo would have scored a one-point safety, but Van Noy clearly knew the rule, because he ran out of the end zone to the one-yard line before taking a knee. (If he had taken a knee in the end zone, it would have been one point for Buffalo.)

You can see the bizarre play below. 

If the defense were to pick off a pass at the one-yard line and then get tackled in the end zone, that would also be a one-point safety. Basically, the easiest way for the one-point play to happen is if the defense forces a turnover at the one-yard line and then gets tackled in the end zone while trying to return the fumble or the interception. 

The wild part is that the defense can also score a one-point safety, which is even more improbable than the offense getting one. In the situation above, the Bills would have scored a point if the Ravens had been tackled in the end zone, but here's how the Ravens could have scored one point on the same play: 

• Hamilton returns the interception 95 yards to the Bills' 5-yard line.
• A Bills defender punches the ball out and recovers it at the 1-yard line.
• The Bills defender, looking to evade several Baltimore tacklers, runs backward into the end zone with the football.
• The Bills defender then gets tackled in the end zone with the football, which would give the Ravens one point.

Both the offense and defense can theoretically score a one-point safety, although we've never seen the defense score one at any level.

While there haven't been any one-pointers in the NFL, there have been two in college at the FBS level, and Brad Nessler was actually on the call for both games. (CBS Sports HQ producer Dan Weiner also attended both games, so maybe we need to start making sure those two are attending games together.) 

The first one-pointer came in a 2004 game between Texas and Texas A&M. The most famous one came nine years later when Oregon scored a one-point safety against Kansas State in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl. 

In the situation above, Oregon's extra point got blocked and Kansas State recovered it in the field of play, but then the Wildcats player made the ill-advised decision to retreat into his own end zone. 

In the NFL, a safety on a blocked extra point is theoretically possible but improbable, since the line of scrimmage on an NFL extra point is the 15-yard line. 

This all means that if we're ever going to see a one-point safety in the NFL, it's almost certainly going to come on a play where the defense forces a turnover but ends up getting tackled in its own end zone. And when it does happen, it will likely come on a play that looks similar to the play we saw in the Ravens-Bills game.