What Is a Safety In Football?

Safety is a way of scoring points in American football. It brings two points to the scoring team. Safety is valid in the following cases: when the offensive team commits a penalty in their end zone, the offensive player who possesses the football is tackled in their end zone, and the ball becomes dead in the end zone.

After safety has occurred, the football is put back into play by the scored-upon team from their 20-yard line by kicking off.

What is The Value of Safety in Football?

Despite their modest value of two points, safeties can have a profound impact on the final score.

Brian Burke of Advanced NFL Stats approximated the value of safety to be greater than field goals using statistical and mathematical methods. 

“A free kick from the 20 yd-line usually means pretty good field position, and this is what makes safeties worth more than you might think.”

How Often Does Safety Occur?

Safeties have a rare appearance in the NFL. They appear approximately once every 14 games.

Even rarer are one-point safeties. They occur on an extra point or two-point conversion attempt by the offense. The offensive team turns the ball over, and the defense takes the football out of the end zone and gets tackled in the end zone. This conversion safety by the offense hasn’t occurred in the NFL since 1940.

The rarest of all is conversion safety by the defense. It is possible, but it is extremely unlikely. This type of conversion safety has never happened in NFL history.

Safety – a Position in American Football

Safety in American football can also be a defensive position, as in safetyman (S). They are lined up on the line 10-15 yards from the line of scrimmage. Two variations of the safety positions are the free safety (FS) and the strong safety (SS).

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