Who would have thought it? Today Doug Flutie executed the NFL’s first drop kick since the 1941 Championship Game (that’s what the Super Bowl was called before it was the Super Bowl). Talk about a surprise for the defense. It hasn’t been done, but it’s still been legal. Ever since they made the football more pointy in 1934, the number of drop kicks has faded away to none. That’s because the ball couldn’t bounce so predictably and because passes could be made much more precisely into the end zone.

For those of you unfamiliar with the drop kick, check out the article on the Football Hall of Fame’s website. As a brief overview, though, it’s where the kicker (or quarterback, if he’s going to kick it) drops the ball, lets it bounce off the ground, and then kicks it (hopefully) through the uprights like a field goal. When used as a field goal, it’s worth the same three points. As an extra point, it’s only worth one point. It was most often used as a surprise move to get three points when the defense wasn’t expecting it. Flutie’s kick was seen as a farewell gesture instead of a strategic move to score.

Note: I happened to check Wikipedia for information on the drop kick and it was already updated! Within just a couple hours of Doug Flutie pulling it off, somebody had updated Wikipedia to mention him as the last player to successfully pull it off. WOW!