What’s a safety in football? Here’s how the Chiefs’ defense can score 2 points
Kansas City Chiefs fans are accustomed to seeing their team score field goals, touchdowns and extra points — but how can the defense end up scoring two?
A safety occurs when the offense commits a foul within its own end zone, fumbles the ball out of its end zone or is tackled in its end zone. When this happens, the defense receives two points and the play is ruled a safety.
After a safety occurs, the team scored upon must make a free kick, which would be a punt, drop kick or place kick from its 20-yard line.
How does a safety occur?
According to the NFL Rulebook, when a player of the team that catches, intercepts or recovers the ball “commits a live-ball foul” in the end zone, that is ruled a safety. A safety can also happen if the offense commits a holding in its end zone, or if the team sends the ball behind its own goal line, making the ball dead in the end zone in its possession or out of bounds.
How does this impact the Chiefs?
For the Kansas City Chiefs, new NFL kickoff rules impacted the team during the 2024 preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, when wide receiver Mecole Hardman went to the end zone, believing he was downing the ball at the 1 for a touchback.
Instead, after the Jaguars questioned the call, the play was reviewed and ruled a safety. The Jags were awarded two points against the Chiefs and ended up winning the game 26-13.
The last time the Chiefs scored a safety was during their Week 7 game against the San Francisco 49ers in 2022 after quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was sacked in the end zone by Frank Clark during the fourth quarter. The game ended in a 44-23 win for the Chiefs.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 2:33 PM.