NFL fans were treated to the “rarest” of circumstances on Thursday Night Football when the Los Angeles Chargers used a little-known rule to score three points on the stroke of halftime.
Jim Harbaugh’s team hosted the Denver Broncos at SoFi but trailed 21-10 with time expiring at the end of the first half.
But then a very unusual circumstance occurred when the Broncos were called for a kick-catch interference as the clock was running, leaving the Chargers in a position that no other team has found in recent years.
The officials’ call resulted in a 15-yard penalty for the Broncos and gave the Chargers a chance to do something no team had done since 1976: a fair catch.
Had they been out of reach, Harbaugh’s team would have had to rely on a Hail Mary to end the half, but the 15-yard penalty put them just within reach for Cameron Dicker to come onto the field.
From 59 yards out, ‘Dicker the Kicker’ nailed one straight through the uprights to make history, scoring the longest fair catch ever in the NFL.
Cameron Dicker walks off the field at half-time having just scored his honest 59-yard catch
Dicker made NFL history on Thursday night with his kick on the stroke of halftime in LA
Incredibly, the last fair catch kick also came courtesy of the Chargers 48 years ago, when Ray Wersching scored the points.
On social media, fans were baffled as they tried to figure out the rule, while many praised the quick thinking of Chargers special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken.
On X, a fan joked that LA should give him a “lifetime contract” because of his knowledge of the rules of the game.
Another added, “That’s why Ryan Ficken is my goat. they showed him on the sidelines teaching Harbaugh that rule. Harbaugh was about to send Herbert outside before the timeout.”
Ray Wersching was the last man to score a fair catch in the NFL in 1976
Others, meanwhile, simply tried to get around the rule, with one fan telling a funny story about how he first heard of it.
“My brother-in-law, a sports fan but not as obsessive as I am, told me about this fair catch rule on Christmas Eve last year,” he wrote. ‘I told him I’d never heard of it, and I seriously doubted it was real. Apparently he was right, and I was wrong. That’s just wild!’
Dicker’s successful kick cut the Chargers’ deficit to 21-13 at halftime.