Touchdown

Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the football into the opponent's end zone.

Because of the speed at which football happens, it is often hard for an official to make the correct call based on their vantage point alone.

In all gridiron codes, the touchdown is scored the instant the ball touches or "breaks" the plane of the front of the goal line (that is, if any part of the ball is in the space on, above, or across the goal line) while in the possession of a player whose team is trying to score in that end zone.

The slightest part of the ball touching or being directly over the goal line is sufficient for a touchdown to score.

However, the defense can also score a touchdown if they have recovered a fumble or made an interception and return it to the opposing end zone.

In the NFL, a touchdown may be awarded by the referee as a penalty for a "palpably unfair act", such as a player coming off the bench during a play and tackling the runner, who would otherwise have scored.

When the first uniform rules for American football were enacted by the newly formed Intercollegiate Football Association following the 1876 Rugby season, a touchdown required touching the ball to the ground past the goal line, and counted for 1⁄4 of a kicked goal (except in the case of a tie) and allowed the offense the chance to kick for goal by placekick or dropkick from a spot along a line perpendicular to the goal line and passing through the point where the ball was touched down, or through a process known as a "punt-out", where the attacking team would kick the ball from the point where it was touched down to a teammate.