Every football fan today is familiar with the pick six, a term that came into use in the early 2000s after an NFL analyst found that teams returning interceptions for touchdowns won 77% of those games. Many also recall Auburn's Kick-Six, when Chris Davis returned a missed Alabama field goal attempt 109 yards to win the 2013 Iron Bowl.
Before that, however, there was another form of kick six, though no one used that name. The old-style kick six came on kickoffs when the prolate spheroid became a free ball after traveling 10 yards or touching a receiving team member. The ball still becomes free in those conditions today, but one difference is that a free kick untouched by the receiving team once remained live after entering the end zone. Most return men knew and remembered that rule, downing the ball in the end zone to earn a touchback, but more than a few failed that step over the years. We’ll cover those who forgot to down the ball in the end zone in a minute.
One of the crazier aspects of the old rule was that a kickoff entering the end zone remained live after going out the side or back of the end zone. Recall that until 1926, a ball fumbled on the playing field remained live when it went out of bounds. Possession went to the first team to down the ball out of bounds. Kickoffs that went out of bounds before entering the end zone were dead, but those exiting the end zone were live. Although I did not find examples of the kicking team scoring a kick six after the ball left the end zone, there might be an example out there somewhere.
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