NFL
What scores have never happened in the NFL?
In the world of NFL, certain scoring rules prohibit some outcomes from occurring. As a result, these never-seen scoring results are called - Scorigami.
With the NFL season underway, everyone is waiting for a game to end with a result that has never occurred. There are 1,421 missing scores in NFL history. If a game produces a development that has never happened, the internet goes wild and shouts Scorigami! But what is Scorigami?
Scorigami!
Jon Bois coined the term Scorigami to describe every possible final score in an NFL game that has never occurred before.
In American football, there are several ways to score points. The official scoring rules of the NFL award two points for a safety, three points for a field goal, six points for a touchdown, seven points for a touchdown plus one extra point, and eight points for a touchdown plus two extra points. In 2015, a new rule allowed teams to score one point. Before this, one-point scores were impossible because extra-point plays were ruled dead, and the referees would stop the play.
Despite the various scoring possibilities, many score combinations have never occurred in NFL history. The highest possible score is considered to be 70-70. Some of the basic score combinations that have occurred are 2–2, 4–0, 4–2, 4–3, 4–4, 5–2, 5–4, 5–5, 6–4, 6–5, 7–4, 8–2, 8–4, 9–4, 11–2, and 11–4. After that, the numbers ending in digits 2, 4, 5, and 8 repeats constantly.
Impossible scores in NFL football
It is important to note that specific score outcomes are impossible due to the scoring rules in place. Specifically, results such as 1-1, 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, and 7-1 are not viable.
This is because a score of 5-1 can only be obtained through a field goal and a conventional safety, which is highly unlikely. Similarly, a score of 7-1 is impossible as a team can only reach 7 points by scoring a touchdown and successfully kicking a PAT.
One frequently asked question is: “Why is 6-1 not impossible?”
6 to 1 was unviable until the one-point safety was introduced in 2015. However, it’s such a rare situation under NFL rules that it likely won’t happen any time soon. For the result to be achieved, the winning team has to score a touchdown and, in the following one-point safety attempt, somehow make such a poor play that they end up getting scored against.
This outcome has never happened in the NFL and has only been seen twice in NCAA football.
Check all missing results here.