Onside kick
The losing team additionally must declare it is attempting the onside kick, thus eliminating the surprise factor prior to the rule change.
One technique, useful especially on a hard or artificial surface, is to kick the ball in such a way that it spins end-over-end near the ground and makes a sudden bounce high in the air.
The oblong shape of an American football makes it bounce unpredictably, increasing the possibility that the receiving team will muff the catch.
To combat this, some teams (including the Buffalo Bills, who pioneered this strategy[3]) developed a "cluster formation" in which all of the players line up behind and immediately next to the kicker in what is effectively a moving huddle.
The NFL eventually banned this, too, with a 2009 rule change that states that "the kicking team cannot have more than five players bunched together"; the rule change has been considered a gratuitous targeting of Bills special teams coach Bobby April, as the ostensible reason for the ban (injury risk) had negligible evidence to support it.
At the same time, the NFL also required that at least eight members of the receiving team line up within the 15-yard "setup zone" (between 10 and 25 yards from the kickoff spot).
However, in the desperation situation, initial field position becomes less relevant, as the receiving team may focus on running the clock out and ending the game.
Occasionally, football coaches attempt surprise onside kicks to catch their opponent's players off guard and without the "hands team" on the field.
Notable examples from championship games include Super Bowl XXX, when Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher called an onside kick early in the fourth quarter when trailing 20–10, which was successfully recovered, and Super Bowl XLIV, where the New Orleans Saints executed an onside kickoff to start the second half and successfully converted the possession into a touchdown.
"[10] Vanderbilt coach Dan McGugin was a prime innovator in this field,[11] and in fact in 1921 tied Georgia for the Southern crown on such a play.
[12] Saint Louis University coach Eddie Cochems described the play after the 1906 season: In these early years and into the 1920s, all players of the kicking team except the kicker were permitted to recover the ball once it hit the ground beyond the neutral zone.
Arena football also has the advantage in that it features rebound nets surrounding the goal posts; thus, unlike in the outdoor game, a potential onside kick receiver does not have to outrun the speed of the kicked ball, and the kicker can carom the ball off the net in hopes of it landing in his teammate's arms.
The Alliance of American Football, which played a partial season in 2019, eliminated all kickoffs, including onside kicks.
When first proposed, the NFL's competition committee voted 7–1 in favor of the change, but it failed to receive the required two-thirds majority approval from the league owners at their March 2019 meeting.
[8] For the 2020 Pro Bowl, the NFL announced a special onside conversion rule, essentially using the Broncos' proposal above, except the 4th-and-15 is attempted from the team's own 25-yard line.
