INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Of all the rules in football, Jim Harbaugh considers the obscure fair-catch kick to be his favorite.
The Los Angeles Chargers coach had the opportunity to try one Thursday night for only the second time in his career.
This time, his kicker got three points from one of the most unusual plays in the sport.
Cameron Dicker made the first successful fair-catch kick in the NFL since 1976, connecting from 57 yards right before halftime against the Denver Broncos.
“I’ve been trying to get one of those every game. Cam Dicker stepped up and made it. It was huge and got the momentum back,” Harbaugh said.
Those points began the Chargers' comeback as they rallied for a 34-27 victory, finishing the game on a 24-6 run.
For football obsessives like Harbaugh who relish oddities and unprecedented feats, Dicker's kick was delightful.
The seldom-used rule allows a team that has just made a fair catch to try a free kick for three points. The kick is attempted from the line of scrimmage, and the defenders all must stand 10 yards away.
The play hardly ever happens because teams almost never find themselves in circumstances to make such a kick feasible. Only five NFL teams had previously tried the kick in the 21st century, and nobody had successfully executed it since Ray Wersching did it for the San Diego Chargers 48 years ago.
“It’s cool. I didn’t know that was the case,” Dicker said about accomplishing the rare milestone. “It was fun to go out there. It was fun to be in that scenario. With the penalty, I thought it would happen."
The Chargers seized the opportunity created when Denver's Tremon Smith committed fair-catch interference on what would have been the final play of the first half when Los Angeles' Derius Davis attempted to field a punt at the Chargers 38.
Smith said he was “well aware” of the fair-catch kick rule when the Chargers subsequently lined up for it.
“I’ve been playing a long time,” Smith added. “It’s just a dumb penalty. ... The returner did a good job of selling it. He knows he’s running into me, even though he wasn’t going to catch the ball. But like I said, dumb penalty.”
The flag moved the ball to the Denver 47 for an untimed down, and Harbaugh took a timeout before electing to try the fair-catch kick.
With J.K. Scott holding the ball, Dicker comfortably booted it through the uprights.
Dicker said special teams coach Ryan Ficken goes over the play often during the season, and that they practice it sometimes on Fridays. Harbaugh also credited Ficken, who brought it up again during the meetings leading up to this game.
“Looking over at (Denver’s) sideline, it was funny. They were confused what was going on. We talk about it every week, so it was normal for us,” Dicker said.
Plenty of the Broncos said they actually knew what was happening, and they were disappointed to be on the wrong side of history.
“It’s something we talk about in our special teams group, and it’s one of those situations you go through in training camp,” Denver receiver Marvin Mims said. “So we all knew what was going to happen, and they executed to perfection.”
Dicker’s 57-yarder also was the longest fair-catch kick in NFL history, besting Paul Hornung’s 52-yarder for Green Bay in 1964.
The most recent fair-catch kick in the NFL was attempted in 2019, when Carolina’s Joey Slye missed from 60 yards in a game played in London.
Harbaugh also attempted it with the San Francisco 49ers in 2013, but Phil Dawson missed from 71 yards right before halftime.
“I wanted it so bad that I tried it,” Harbaugh said when looking back. “I was really happy, too, because Coach Ficken went over it this week. We took a timeout and got things dialed in. It was going to be on their side of the 50. It was our chance."
The play is extremely rare because most fair catches occur well outside of normal field goal range. The Broncos' punt would have stranded the Chargers beyond Dicker's considerable range, but Smith's penalty created a rare opportunity — and Dicker didn't miss.
“I was definitely confused,” Chargers edge rusher Joey Bosa said. “I was ready to get in the locker room, but I’m happy we had a shot. I was just joking that you can play for 20 years and still have no idea what’s going on on the field. So it was a good moment. It was an important swing in momentum.”
Wersching, who kicked for the Chargers and 49ers during 15 NFL seasons, made a 45-yard fair-catch kick at the halftime gun for San Diego against Buffalo on Nov. 21, 1976.
“It doesn’t happen much,” Denver coach Sean Payton said. “We practice it all the time. In that situation, the penalty put them in field goal position, so it’s disappointing.”
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AP sports writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
Greg Beacham, The Associated Press