Theconversion,try (American football), also known as apoint(s) after touchdown,PAT,extra point,two-point conversion, orconvert (Canadian football) is agridiron football play that occurs immediately after atouchdown. The scoring team attempts to score one extra point by kicking the ball through the uprights in the manner of afield goal, or two points by passing or running the ball into the end zone in the manner of a touchdown.
Attempts at a try or convert are scrimmage plays, with the ball initially placed at any point between the hash marks, at the option of the team making the attempt. The yard line that attempts are made from depends on the league and the type of try or convert being attempted.
If the try or convert is scored by kicking the ball through the uprights, the team gets an additional one point for theirtouchdown, bringing their total for that score from six points to seven. If two points are needed or desired, atwo-point conversion may be attempted by running or passing from scrimmage. A successful touchdown conversion from scrimmage brings the score's total to eight.
Whether a team goes for one or two points, most rules regarding scrimmage downs, including scoring touchdowns and field goals, apply as if it were a normal American fourth-down or Canadian third-down play. Exceptions, including cases where the defense forces aturnover during a conversion attempt, vary between leagues and levels of play. One thing that sets the try apart from other plays in the NFL is that, apart from the actual points, ordinary statistics are not recorded on the try as they would be on a regular scrimmage play. For example, on December 4, 2016,Eric Berry of theKansas City Chiefs made an interception on a try and physically returned it 99 yards for adefensive two-point conversion. However, because it occurred on a try, Berry did not get statistical credit for the 99 yards of return yardage or the interception, but did get credited for scoring 2 points. Likewise, a player will never be credited with passing, rushing, or receiving yardage on a try.[1]
A term popularized by sports writerMitch Goldich isoctopus, in which a player scores the touchdown and the immediately following conversion.[2] The term has gained steam in betting circles as aproposition bet.[3] A notable octopus is one scored byJalen Hurts to tieSuper Bowl LVII with 5:20 left in the game.
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The try/convert is among the oldest parts of the game of gridiron football and dates to itsrugby roots. In its earliest days, scoring a touchdown was not the primary objective but a means of getting a free kick at the goal (which is why the name "try", more commonly associated withrugby today, is still used in American football rule books), and thus early scoring rubrics for the game gave more points to the subsequent kick than the actual advancement of the ball over the goal line. The related term "conversion" is still used in both rugby union and rugby league to refer to extra points scored by kicking the ball through the posts after a try has been scored.
By the start of the 20th century, touchdowns had become more important and the roles of touchdown and kick were reversed. By this time the point value for the after-touchdown kick had been reduced to its current one-point value while the touchdown was now worth five. (This later increased to six points in American football in 1912 and in Canadian football in 1956.)[4][5]
In the first half of the 20th century, a one-point conversion could be scored either by kick or by way of a scrimmage play. Beginning in 1958, the scrimmage play conversion method of scoring became worth two points (atwo-point conversion) in college football. While theAmerican Football League adopted the college rule throughout its ten-season existence in the 1960s (as did the originalUnited States Football League throughout its three-season existence in the 1980s), other professional leagues were slow to follow suit; all levels ofCanadian football did so in 1975, and theNational Football League did not do so until 1994.
Although a successful kick is only worth one point, and has a very high rate of success, missed or blocked attempts can decide the outcome of the game:
The CFL and NFL both made major changes to the rules governing conversions prior to their respective 2015 seasons, reducing or eliminating some of the differences between the two leagues.
In American high school football (in most states), the play is over once the ball becomes dead or the defense takes possession. In many other levels of football, including theCFL, NFL, andAmerican college football, the play continues after a turnover to the defense. This allows thedefense to return the ball to the opponent's end zone for two points and also allows for a one-pointsafety. Two states,Texas andMassachusetts, play high school football under NCAA rules and thus allow the defense to score on an extra-point attempt.
In Americanhigh school andcollege football, the line of scrimmage is the three-yard line (a small hashmark is denoted on the field of this in the middle of the 3-yard line), with the kick taking place at the 10-yard line for a 20-yard attempt.
In American football, the game clock does not run during an extra-point attempt, except for some rare circumstances at the high-school level (some state associations allow for the clock to run continuously in the second half if one team is leading the other by a large margin)[8] and forarena football, which runs the clock continuously except during the final minute of each half and overtime. In Canadian football, the clock runs during a conversion attempt except during the last three minutes of each half.
A small plastic tee, which can be 1 to 2 inches (25–51 mm) high (smaller than the kickoff tee), may be used for field goals and extra points in some leagues, including U.S. high schools and Canadian amateur play. The NFL (and most other professional leagues) has never allowed the use of tees for extra-point kick attempts, having always required kickers to kick off the ground for such attempts (and for field goals; a rare exception for a U.S.-based pro league to allow the usage of such tees for such attempts was the original USFL in the 1980s).[9][10] In1948, the NCAA authorized the use of the small rubberized kicking tee for extra points and field goals, but banned them by1989, requiring kicks from the ground, as in the NFL.[11][12] The CFL allows the use of a tee for field goals and convert kicks, but it is optional.[13]
Prior to the2015 season, the NFL used the 2-yard line (with the kick coming at the 10-yard line for a 20-yard attempt) for all conversion attempts (which was denoted on the field with a hashmark in the middle of the 2-yard line; although the line of scrimmage on the point-after kick attempt was moved back in 2015, it remains to denote the two-point conversion's line of scrimmage). InCanadian football, the line of scrimmage was from the 5-yard line (for a 12-yard attempt; unlike American football, no special hashmark is used to denote the convert's line of scrimmage on the field in Canada).
In the NFL, the conversion was required after a touchdown scored during the regulation game (i.e., not overtime), because point differential is used for some tiebreakers in the standings. Rarely, this can result in such an attempt having to be made at the end of the game when it cannot change the outcome of the game; two of the best-known examples of this occurred after the winning touchdown by thePhiladelphia Eagles in the December 19,2010, game known as theMiracle at the New Meadowlands and after thecontroversial game-winning touchdown by theSeattle Seahawks on September 24,2012.
If the game is insudden death overtime, the extra-point attempt is omitted if the winning score is a touchdown. In American high school and college football, it is likewise omitted following a touchdown on the game's final play if a successful conversion attempt cannot change the outcome of the game.
There is, however, one exception in college football because the defense can also score two points on a return of a conversion try (and theoretically score a one-pointsafety) and the NCAA rules state that the conversion try must be run if any subsequent scoring on the play could impact the outcome of the game. Therefore, if a team scores a touchdown to take the lead by one or two points as time expires, they must still attempt the conversion, although most teams will simply opt totake a knee to prevent the risk of the defense scoring. For example, on October 24, 2009,Iowa scored as time expired to take a 15–13 lead overMichigan State. Making the conversion would have made no difference in Iowa winning the game, but Iowa still had to attempt it, soRicky Stanzi simply knelt down, as a return by Michigan State would have tied the game and forced overtime.
In Canadian football, the scoring team is entitled to a conversion play after scoring with no time on the clock, but may choose to waive it. Because head-to-head points scored is used as a tiebreaker in the standings, they often choose to attempt the conversion when playing an opponent with whom a tie in the standings is possible. As in U.S. college football, Canadian football allows defenses to score two points for the successful return of a convert attempt.
The CFL and NFL both implemented major changes to how conversions were attempted starting with their respective 2015 seasons.[14][15]
In the CFL, the line of scrimmage for a kick attempt moved back 20 yards to the 25-yard line (for a 32-yard attempt), while the line of scrimmage for a two-point attempt moved forward two yards to the three-yard line.
In the NFL, the line of scrimmage for a kick attempt moved back 13 yards to the 15-yard line (for a 33-yard attempt), effectively placing the ball the same distance from the goalposts as in the CFL. The line of scrimmage for a two-point attempt remained at the two-yard line. NFL defenses also became able to run back failed conversion attempts for a two-point score. On December 6, 2015,New Orleans Saints linebackerStephone Anthony became the first player in NFL history to do so, after New Orleans blocked an extra-point kick by theCarolina Panthers.[16] Some broadcasters did not immediately update their in-game graphics programming to account for the scoring of two points for the defensive return of a try, resulting in the score sometimes being erroneously displayed to audiences as a "safety" (which has the same scoring value).
As expected, the 2015 rule changes increased the frequency of two-point conversion attempts, from a rate of about five percent to about eight percent,[17] much of that increase coming from thePittsburgh Steelers alone.[18]
Starting with the 2018 season, the NFL adopted the CFL rule allowing teams to waive "unnecessary" extra-point attempts at the end of the game, following theMinneapolis Miracle unless the score margin is within two points.[19][20]
In most cases in gridiron football, one point may be scored following a touchdown—bringing the total value of the touchdown to seven points—by place kicking the ball through the uprights. Exceptions occur in overtime in some leagues. In American college football and in high school leagues that use college rules, in double overtime and later, teams may only attempt two-point conversions.[21] In the CFL, one-point (kicking) converts are not available in overtime; all convert attempts must be for two-point (rushing or passing) converts.[22] Prior to the2025 NFL season, an overtime game in the NFL regular season would automatically end on a touchdown even on the first possession, so there was never a situation in overtime where a try would have been possible. Since the2022 NFL season, in the playoffs, both teams have an opportunity to possess the ball no matter what happens on the first possession. Since the 2025 NFL season, this rule has also applied to the regular season.Rich McKay, the chairman of theNFL competition committee, said that coaches were discussing going for two points after a touchdown on their first possession in overtime of a postseason game, as a strategic move.[23]
In 1968, theAFL andNFL eliminated the extra-point kick for interleague preseason games, allowing only one-point scrimmage plays called "Pressure Points"; this was scrapped when both leagues began their regular seasons that year. TheWorld Football League (which called their conversions "Action Points"),Alliance of American Football, and both the2001 and2020 incarnations of the XFL did the same in their short lives. The XFL later implemented a variable system that allowed increasing point values (between one and three points) for increasing the distance to the end zone on the attempt for its 2001 playoffs, which carried over into the 2020 league; that system was later adopted by theStars Football League[24] and, in a reduced form, theLegends Football League.[25] The2022 incarnation of the United States Football League followed a compromise model in that extra-point kicks were still allowed, but that a conversion could be worth two or three points based on distance. The CFL proposed to test the variable-distance scoring system during the 2015 preseason, but the proposal was rejected. Inarena football, two points can also be scored by means of adrop-kicked field goal. The2024 incarnation of the Arena Football League also adopted afour-point conversion in the same model as the USFL's three-point conversion,[26] a rule originally carried over fromChampions Indoor Football.[27] After this rule had a direct impact on the outcome of several games in the 2024 season allowing for sudden 12-point swings in scores, the 2024 AFL's successorArena Football One dropped the rule in favor of the traditional one- and two-point conversions.[28]
Some youth football leagues award one point for a running conversion and two points for either a passing conversion or kick through the uprights;six-man football follows a similar convention that awards one point for a pass or run and two points for a kick.[citation needed]
In its inaugural2021 season, theEuropean League of Football, which follows NFL rules on conversions after touchdowns, had both a comparatively high rate of failed PAT attempts – higher than in the concurrent2021 German Football League season – and a higher rate of two-point conversion attempts than other leagues. Furthermore, some roster moves, like theBarcelona Dragons acquiring NFL alumGiorgio Tavecchio, were seen as attempts to improve both field goal and PAT success rates.[citation needed] In the inaugural championship game, the winningFrankfurt Galaxy scored five touchdowns and opted for two-point conversions after each, bringing their total score to 32 points, as four out of the five conversion attempts failed.[citation needed]
In the N.F.L., unlike college and the U.S.F.L., no tee is allowed on field goals.
The NFL allows the use of tees as high as 3 inches for kickoffs, but has never allowed them for field goals and PATs. The pro league, which began to declare its independence from the college game with a number of rules changes beginning in the mid-1930s, also has refused to widen the goal posts.
For place kicks (field goal and convert attempts) the kicking tee platform or block can be no higher than one inch in height as per Rule 5, Section 1, Article 3 of the CFL Rulebook. For kickoffs, the ball may be held or placed on a tee such that the lowest part of the ball is no higher than three inches off the ground; Kicking tees are not required to be used. Kickers may kick off the ground if they desire.
Media related toConversion (gridiron football) at Wikimedia Commons