History was made at the Broncos/Chargers Game

As fans, when the Denver Broncos win, we feel great; when they lose, it hurts. When we find out that history was made in a loss, it just makes it hurt more.

The Broncos traveled to take on the Los Angeles Chargers in December of 2024; the Chargers walked away with a win, 37-24. Three of those points for the Charger not only were enough for the win, but put them into the history books.

Great. Just.... great.

Los Angeles Chargers Make History in Win Over Denver Broncos

The start of that football game on December 19, 2024, started out great for the Broncos: Three drives garnering three touchdowns. It looked like it was going to be "easy peasy" for the Broncos, but no.

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Obscure NFL Rule Puts Chargers Kicker Into NFL History Books

If you weren't listening to, but were watching that game, you wondered what the heck was happening at the end of the first half. "Why are they lined up like that? What's going on??"

Denver had kicked the ball to the Chargers, but were penalized for interfering with the fair catch; that pushed the Broncos back another 15 yards to kick again. With that fair catch, Chargers' Coach Jim Harbaugh went to his "bag of tricks" to implement a seldom used rule.

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The rule: After a "fair catch" the receiving team, instead of beginning series of downs, can elect to just try and kick the ball through the uprights, like a field goal. When doing so, the defense stands back and leaves the kicker alone - the "Free Kick" rule.

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With Denver having to move back and re-kick to the Chargers, it gave the Chargers better field position; not great field position, but better. Harbaugh sent out their kicker, Dicker, to do a "free kick" to end the half. What did they have to lose?

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67 yards later, the "Free Kick" was good, and the Chargers had three more points. No team had used this obscure rule since 1976. What makes the history books, is that Dicker's "free kick" was the longest one, ever, in NFL history.

Like I said, it just makes it hurt, more.

Here's how it all went down:

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