In the world of football, most fans are familiar with touchdowns, extra points, and field goals. Safeties, too, are part of the regular scoring vocabulary. But buried deep in the rulebook is one of the rarest and most unusual plays: the one-point safety. It’s so uncommon that even seasoned fans might go years without seeing it happen in a live game. Yet the rule exists, and when it comes into play, it can be one of the strangest moments on the field.
Understanding how a one-point safety works requires a look at the specific conditions that make it possible.
Normally, a safety awards two points to the defense when the offense commits an error in their own end zone. A one-point safety, however, is different. It can only occur during a conversion attempt — either an extra point or a two-point conversion — and it results in a single point for the team that initially scored the touchdown.
In short, a one-point safety happens if the defense gains possession during the try, but then somehow ends up committing a safety themselves. The offense, instead of earning two points for a successful conversion, picks up just one point because of the unusual safety against the defense.
While extremely rare, there are a few theoretical paths to a one-point safety:
The crucial element is that the defense must possess the ball at some point during the try. Without possession, it would either be a normal failed conversion or a two-point conversion for the defense.
One-point safeties are almost never seen because the circumstances required are incredibly specific. First, the defense must gain possession on a play that already has strict rules limiting what they can do. Second, they have to end up in their own end zone and be downed or commit a penalty there — a sequence that doesn’t happen under normal gameplay.
In fact, at the college football level, there have only been a few recorded instances of a one-point safety. At the professional level, the NFL has yet to see an official one-point safety recorded during a game, though it remains in the rulebook.
The most notable example of a one-point safety came during the 2013 Fiesta Bowl between Oregon and Kansas State. On an extra-point attempt, Oregon kicked the ball, Kansas State blocked it, and in the chaos that followed, Kansas State ended up committing a penalty that resulted in a one-point safety for Oregon.
Moments like these are so rare that when they happen, even broadcasters and referees often need a few extra moments to sort out exactly what occurred.
The one-point safety stands as one of football’s true oddities — a scoring rule so rare that many fans will never see it happen live. Yet it remains a part of the game’s fabric, waiting for the perfect set of bizarre circumstances to bring it into reality. Knowing how it works not only deepens an understanding of football’s complex scoring rules but also offers a small reminder that no matter how much you think you’ve seen, the game always has a few surprises left.
