The STRANGEST Touchback of All Time | Explaining the NFL's Safety Rule | Broncos @ Giants (1980)

If you're wondering why the Brandon Aiyuk punt in the 49ers/Colts game was a touchback and not a safety, this video will help.
If a punt is muffed at the 6-yard line and recovered in the end zone, is it a touchback or a safety? In a 1980 game between the New York Giants and Denver Broncos, this exact scenario happened. This is the story behind the play, what the referees ruled, and whether or not the refs got it right... with a little help from Dean Blandino.
Thanks to Dean Blandino for helping me out with this ruling! Twitter bio below:
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[@johnlevalley521]

As a Broncos fan living in New York at the time, the game was unfortunately blacked out in New York. This is the first time I am seeing this play.

[@kartanoman]

Why didn't you get a ticket to see the game live with the rest of us Giants' fan masochists who actually went to that unmitigated disaster?

[@djohns808]

Guess I got it right. Thought it was a touchback. Love the channel. I download a lot of videos and watch them on work trips.

[@Fireyninjadog]

31 years later, the opening kickoff in the steelers broncos wild card game was a touch back, but the ball bounced to the 20 yard line exactly

[@kartanoman]

The game was blacked out in the NY Metropolitan area, the game doesn't even exist in the NBC archives and, add insult to injury, the game wasn't even covered on the NFL Films program "This Week In Pro Football." To get the game, you either had to: 1. Live in the Denver area or 2. Attend the game at Giants Stadium. I actually did the latter, as an 11 year old, in a half empty, windy stadium. Everybody there booed Craig Morton until he was knocked out of the game, and the cheers, as he was helped off, were about the only one we could muster apart from Joe Danelo giving the Giants a tenuous 9-7 lead at the half. Otis Armstrong ran hard and scored the game winner. The Giants had two dozen players on injured reserve. But 1980 would signal the end of "The Wilderness Years" for the Giants. The arrival of LT in 1981 helped the Giants break the 18 year playoff drought and set the team on a path for Super Bowl XXI. As for this forgettable play, to include Alvin Garrett, he went to the Redskins and won a Super Bowl in 1982. That this play made the NFL '80 highlights speaks to the boredom of the NBC crew who were asleep through most of the game ... not that they missed anything, anyway! Peace!

[@paulromsky9527]

I think it is a Touchback, he did not bring the ball into the End Zone under his control, it was Muffed into the End Zone through his impetus, but he did not carry it into the End Zone. He followed the ball into the End Zone and gained control of the ball there (just as if he caught it in the End Zone). His options at that point were: 1. Take a Knee for a requested Touchback that will cause a Ref to call it a dead ball, and spot it on the 20 as a 1st down. Or get tackled for a Touchback as well (which what happened). 2. Run the Ball out of the End Zone and put the ball in play on the field. 3. Move or throw the ball out of Bounds which would give the other team a 2 point Safety and a free kick to them from the 20 yard line. 4. Fumble and recover it down for a Safety to the other team, or recover it standing up and go with options 1 or 2, or lose the the fumble to the other team for a Touchdown (if up or down when they gain possession) or no possession after fumble (ball goes out of bounds) for a Safety. End Zone plays are tricky. Am I right I this? But the main take away from this? Mike Ditka would NEVER let it happen, even if he was a mini Ditka.

[@TheManWithThePlan360]

"The only play I can recall that was remotely like this..." "It's gonna be that Travis Benjamin one against the Patriots three years ago that he ran back 20 yards, isn't it?" "...was a Travis Benjamin-" "ohforfuckssake" Now on a serious note, I feel like I recall something _really_ similar recently, within the last two weeks, with a ball touching someone's body and it still going back to the back of the endzone. However it, too, was called as a touchback. Maybe there was some wording in the rulebook that necessitated possession of the ball rather than it _just_ being touched, but 1.) I don't ever recall any times where a ball touched a player and it didn't count as a muff, and 2.) the footage is too low-quality to tell whether he possessed it in the first place, so that argument goes out the window. EDIT: My guy seriously got in touch with Dean Blandino.

[@jacktanner2835]

Did you know that if you a caught a touchdown pass with both of your heels coming down in bounds but without the rest of your feet also coming in bounds that you are out of bounds ? No BS. It happened to Vincent Jackson in 2013 in a game against the Falcons (or maybe it was the Bills). Mike Glennon throws a pass to the back of the end zone and VJ catches it falling backwards and the heels of both feet land in bounds before he falls out of the EZ. The refs meet up and determine that the heel is not considered to be part of the foot in this instance. The rule may have been changed since then. The game is on YT here somewhere. I will try to find it and post it here.

[@CTubeMan]

It’s right, according to the rules, that it’s not a safety, since Garrett muffed the punt and didn’t have full possession outside the end zone. Seems the right call should be that the ball is spotted where the muff occurred.

[@jacktanner2835]

But at the point of the muff it is a live ball. Strange rule. Imagine if, God forbid, this happened in the playoffs or even the super bowl ?

[@CTubeMan]

@@jacktanner2835 Yes, but so is a fumble recovered by a teammate in the final two minutes. The officials don’t reward a team for screwing up anymore (at least in that situation thanks to the Holy Roller). If the Broncos recovered that in the end zone the call of touchdown would be morally justified.

[@justinpettit3432]

Did he muff it though? The screen is so blurry on that old play that i can't tell what actually happened there. lol.

[@jacktanner2835]

Safety. How could it be anything BUT a safety ?

[@CTubeMan]

Here’s two questions to help answer the question why it’s a touchback. Who had possession at the start of the play? The Broncos. When the Giants gained full possession of the ball where was it? The end zone. So it can’t be a safety. However, I agree the Giants should not have been rewarded with 14 yards of field position for failing to field a punt and going backwards 6+ yards.

[@jacktanner2835]

@@CTubeMan Then the Giants should have been awarded the ball at the point of muff.

[@Namath1000]

The impetus for the ball going into the endzone was the punt.

[@trwent]

Too blurry!!

[@thereilneid2868]

Great video BUT as a Lions fan, I gotta stick w/QB my man Dan Orlovsky's safety He was just a little out of bounds. LMFAO.

[@CTubeMan]

Just a bit outside...