In a bizarre circumstance, a referee threatened to award a touchdown by a never-before-used rule in the history of the National Football League.
During the NFC Championship game between the Washington Commanders and the Philadelphia Eagles, the Eagles were looking to add to their lead with the ball on the one yard line.
The Eagles lined up for their iconic ‘tush push’ play where the offensive line was set to shove their opponents in a pseudo-rugby scrum to try and gain the extra yard.
But before the play began, Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu tried jumping over his defensive line and Philadelphia’s offensive line to tackle Eagles QB Jalen Hurts before he could get into the end zone. He was flagged for encroachment.
The referees moved the ball ever-so-slightly toward the goal and replayed the down. Once again, the Eagles lined up for the tush push and once again, Luvu jumped over the two lines to try and tackle Hurts. Once again, he was flagged for encroachment.
At this point, the officials couldn’t have moved the ball any closer to the goal line and the Eagles once again lined up for the tush push. This time, before the ball was snapped, defensive lineman Jonathan Allen appeared to stumble at the line and was flagged for encroachment a third time.
But referee Shawn Hochuli made an interesting penalty call: ‘Encroachment, defense No. 93. Washington has been advised that at some point, the referee can award a score if this type of behavior happens again. For now, it’s a replay of a second down.’
The rule Hochuli was referring to falls under a rarely-used umbrella of football rules to punish so-called ‘Palpably Unfair Acts’ – essentially, rules meant to punish actions that are blatantly not fair which gives officials the discretion to decide what should happen.
This includes awarding a team points – if the referees deem it necessary.
Such ‘Palpably Unfair Acts’ include: interference with a live play, goaltending (leaping to deflect a kick as it passes above the crossbar of the goal post), outside interference, spying, and – in this case – deliberate consecutive fouls.
Across the entire history of the NFL, no referee has awarded points to a team as a result of deliberately causing multiple fouls.
The league has, in the past, fined a coach for intentionally breaking the rules. Back in November 1989, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan was fined $3,500 (about $8,900 in today’s money) for ‘intentionally sending too many players onto the field’, according to reporting from the Associated Press at the time.
Philly was up 10-9 in their game against the Minnesota Vikings and after kneeling the ball three times and taking a penalty on fourth down, 15 seconds remained.
Facing a 4th and 22, Ryan sent out the punt team with three extra players in an attempt to draw a penalty, reset the play clock, and keep the game clock moving.
Referees didn’t notice this in the game, but league officials went back and punished Ryan months later.
While there is no record of points being awarded in an NFL game from a ‘Palpably Unfair Act’ ruling, there is record of this happening at the college level, according to site Quirky Research.
The University of Toledo was playing a game against the in-state rival University of Dayton back in 1951.
After Dayton scored a touchdown to go up 20-0, a Toledo lineman jumped the center on two separate occasions in an attempt to block the kick.
The game’s referee, Dan Tehan, cautioned the player that he was ‘intentionally holding up the game’ and that he’d award Dayton the point if he did it again.
Sure enough, the Toledo lineman jumped the center a third time and Tehan awarded the point to Dayton. Dayton won that game 47-7.
So, while Hochuli never awarded the touchdown, this is the closest in NFL history that this has happened. Just another quirk in the game that the Eagles went on to easily win – en route to their fifth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
