What Is a Fair Catch Kick? The NFL’s Rarest Play Explained

There is a play in the rulebook that most fans have never seen happen live, that your uncle swears he saw once in 1987, and that can pop up on the final drive of a half with almost no warning. It is called the fair catch kick — and it is the only place kick in the NFL where the ball gets teed up.

Every kicker should know it, because sooner or later a coach is going to look down the sideline and ask if you can hit one.

What the Play Actually Is

The mechanics are simple. Returner signals for and makes a fair catch. Instead of taking the ball at the spot and running an offense, the receiving team can attempt a field goal from that spot — that attempt is the fair catch kick. It is worth three points, just like any field goal.

What makes it strange is the setup. The defense has to line up well downfield from the spot and cannot cross the line until the ball is kicked. There is no rush. There is no block in your face. The kicker sets up with a snap and a hold like a normal field goal, but with a cushion of space that a regular kick never gets.

And then there is the tee. In the NFL, the fair catch kick can be kicked from a kicking tee — the same tee you would use on a kickoff. That is the entire reason the play exists as an option. Teeing the ball adds real range to a kick that would otherwise be off the ground.

Why You Barely Ever See It

For a fair catch kick to be worth calling, an unusual stack of conditions has to line up:

• A fair catch happens — which means the return team actually chose to catch it rather than return it.
• The spot is beyond your normal field goal range, or at least deep enough that the tee is worth the trouble.
• There is enough time left in the half or the game to set up a kick, with the operation taking several seconds.
• Conditions favor a big leg — wind at your back helps a lot when the ball is teed.

When the spot is inside normal range, teams just kick a field goal the regular way. When the clock is tight, the operation time makes it a gamble. So the fair catch kick lives in a narrow window: late in a half, deep spot, calm sideline, coach willing to look silly if it goes wrong.

Successful attempts are so rare you can count them without taking off your shoes, and the most recent one came decades ago. Modern attempts exist — a few coaches have tried it at the end of halves — but a make is genuinely historic. That rarity is exactly what makes it fun to know about. When the play does get called, half the stadium is confused, and you are the only player on the field who has been practicing it.

Rare kicks live in that same neighborhood — strange setups, strange situations, kicks that most people in the stands have never watched happen in real time.

The Rulebook Around It

One detail surprises people: the college game does not use the fair catch kick at all. The NFL rulebook and high school rule books do. So a high school kicker can absolutely end up attempting one on a Friday night, and a college kicker will probably never see one outside of film study.

The fair catch itself connects to a bigger web of special teams rules that keep shifting — and the fair catch is at the center of several of those changes. If you follow the pro game, how NFL kickoff rules changed and what kickers must adjust covers the recent wave of tweaks in detail.

My advice for the rule itself: read your own rulebook, not a highlight reel. League-specific details — where the defense lines up, what happens on a missed attempt, how the clock behaves — vary between levels, and none of them matter more than knowing what your state association allows.

How a Kicker Actually Preps for One

You do not need to build your whole week around a play that may never come. But you can be the kicker who is ready in twenty minutes if it does.

1. Own your tee swing. If you came up through a 2-inch tee, you already have the motion. Keep it alive: a dozen teed kicks in practice every couple of weeks keeps the feel from rusting.
2. Learn the distance bump. Off a tee, your realistic range stretches. Find your honest number on a tee and tell your special teams coordinator — that number is the only reason the play exists.
3. Rehearse the setup once. The operation is a normal snap and hold, so you are not learning anything new. Just walk through it with your holder so nobody is surprised if the call comes in a two-minute situation.
4. Know your conditions rule. Wind-aided, teed, and unrushed is the best contact you will ever get in a game. If you get the call, do nothing fancy — same steps, same swing.

That last point matters most. The biggest risk on a fair catch kick is a kicker who tries to do something extra because the moment feels historic. It is a field goal. Kick it like one.

What It Teaches You About the Job

I bring up the fair catch kick with young kickers for a reason that has nothing to do with the play itself. Specialists who know the rulebook are worth more to a staff than specialists who only know their own steps. When you can tell your coach “yes, we can do that, and here is my number from that spot,” you have just made yourself useful in a way most kickers never are.

It is part of a broader picture of why the position has grown so specialized — here’s why NFL kickers are so good digs into that, and the history of kicking and punting in football shows how many rules quirks like this one shaped the position.

Your Next Step

This week, do two things. Ask your special teams coach whether your league allows fair catch kicks — the answer may surprise you. Then spend one practice session teeing up beyond your normal range and finding your honest number. Write it down. That number is your contribution the next time a game lands in that weird window where the rulebook opens up and everybody turns to look at the kicker.