You were probably beside yourself when Aaron Rodgers’ fumble late in the fourth quarter of the Green Bay Packers’ loss to the Buffalo Bills was ruled a safety even after it was recovered by running back Eddie Lacy and run out of the end zone.
The rule in play is that only the player who fumbled can recover a fumble and advance it when there’s less than two minutes left. So when Lacy touched the ball in the end zone, it was dead at the spot. Safety.
Fucking idiotic, huh?
Well, that rule will make some sense after you see this. It’s called The Holy Roller and it allowed the Oakland Raiders to beat the San Diego Chargers back in 1978.
Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler is about to be sacked. He “fumbles” the ball forward. Some other clown on the Raiders “fumbles” it forward again. Dave Casper picks up the ball and crosses the goal line. Raiders win.
It was obviously questionable whether these were actually legitimate fumbles, hence the rule.
Now, what would seemingly make sense to me is if the player fumbles backwards — as Rodgers did — under two minutes, then someone else could pick it up and advance it. But what do I know?