It was close to midnight in Spain on Wednesday when Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez stepped forward to take a penalty in a Champions League shootout against rivals Real Madrid.
The Argentinian soccer player slipped at the end of his run-up but still managed to score high into the net. Yet his celebrations were short-lived: a minute or so later the Video Assistant Referee ruled that he had kicked the ball twice and therefore his effort was counted as missed. Atletico went on to lose the shootout 4-2.
The little-known rule immediately sparked intense debate concerning its fairness and has led to UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, asking FIFA, its global counterpart, and the sport’s lawmakers, IFAB, to review possible changes to it.
Yet this is by no means the only quirky rule in sport — or the only time a bizarre law has proved the difference between victory and defeat.
From a baseball cap being blown off by the wind, an untucked basketball jersey leading to a free-throw and a World Cup final being decided by a law almost nobody had ever heard of, our writers nominate the oddest rules in sport.
American football: The tuck rule
Foxboro. January 19, 2002. The NFL’s first-ever Saturday night divisional round game was snow-covered and remains blanketed in controversy to this day.
With 1 minute and 50 seconds on the clock, the New England Patriots trailed the Oakland Raiders 13-10. Just outside field-goal range, second-year quarterback Tom Brady receives the snap, drops back and looks to his left to toss a backside slant.
He pumps and fails to see the blitzing Charles Woodson — a University of Michigan team-mate. Brady fumbles, the ball hits the ground and Raiders linebacker Greg Biekert falls on it. The Raiders celebrate. Game over.
But no.
After an instant replay, referee Walt Coleman cites the previously little-known Tuck Rule. “After reviewing the play, the quarterback’s arm was going forward. It is an incomplete pass,” Coleman offers as his on-field explanation.
With ice in his veins, kicker Adam Vinatieri earned his place in the Hall of Fame with a phenomenal 45-yard field goal to level the scores. In overtime his 27-yarder sent the Patriots through. Three weeks later, they won Super Bowl XXXVI.
The Tuck Rule had been introduced in 1999 to protect quarterbacks and was abolished in 2013, but its most famous moment altered the history of the two franchises.
Brady sealed his spot as starter as the Patriots went on to win the first of six Super Bowls (Brady claimed a seventh with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for good measure), while the misfortune began the Raiders’ slide into irrelevance.
“It was the worst call in the history of sports,” Woodson told ESPN for the 30 for 30 documentary: The Call That Changed it All.
It took 20 years, but even Brady agreed. “The Tuck Rule game against the Raiders,” he said in 2022, sheepishly adding, “might have been a fumble”.
Brady takes a hit from Woodson in the famous 2002 game (MATT CAMPBELL/AFP via Getty Images)
Peter Carline
Ice hockey: Disallowed goal stumps everybody
Despite being a relatively simple sport, ice hockey has one of the most bizarre and complicated rules in existence.
Law 78.5 of the game’s rulebook states that “a goal is disallowed when the puck has deflected directly into the net off an official”. However, directly doesn’t always mean directly.
In a 2018 match between the St. Louis Blues and Florida Panthers, Blues’ defenceman Robert Bortuzzo took such a wild shot at goal that it hit referee Tim Peel, who was standing in the right corner of the zone.
As Peel collapsed onto the ice in agony, the puck bounced all the way onto the skate of Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo and into the net.
Even though the puck hadn’t gone directly off Peel, the goal was disallowed. The NHL later clarified that this is because if a puck deflects off an official, onto the goaltender and into the net, then it is still ruled out.
If it deflects off an official and onto an outfield player, though, it is allowed to stand.
Despite the controversy, the Blues managed to win the game 4-3, so all’s well that ends well in that case.
Kaya Kaynak
Cricket: Unknown rule decides World Cup final
The 2019 Cricket World Cup final was one of the sport’s greatest-ever games. Host nation England had thrillingly tied New Zealand’s first-innings total of 241, meaning a ‘super over’ (an extra six balls for each team) was needed to decide who would be crowned champions.
It was the first one-day international final in the sport’s history to be decided in such a way, and yet this was just the start of the drama.
Both teams scored 15 runs from their six balls, leaving the players, fans and millions of people watching around the world confused of the outcome. Surely there would be another super over to settle the match? This was the World Cup final, after all.
Yet it then emerged that England had won the tournament for the first time since they had scored more boundaries (hitting the ball past the rope that encircles the field) during the final than New Zealand.
Bafflement gave way to unbridled joy for the hosts. New Zealand, led by captain Kane Williamson, were magnanimous in defeat, despite their justifiable frustration.
Three months’ later, the rule was changed so that if a super over is tied, it will be replayed until a winner is found.
England celebrate winning the Cricket World Cup in 2019 (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Will Jeanes
Tennis: Baseball cap stops play
Wind the clock back to New York, on September 8, 2012. In hugely windy conditions, Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych were facing off in the U.S. Open semi-final, with plenty on the line.
So it wasn’t surprising that Berdych was trying everything to win — but what happened next was unexpected.
Facing a break point early in the first set, Murray hit a drop-shot winner — but the Scot’s baseball cap blew off in the wind at the decisive moment.
Berdych argued that the stray hat had hindered him, even though he was far from getting to the ball.
In tennis, rules dictate that if something blows onto the court — whether a hat, a towel or a feather, as has happened over the years — a point should be replayed. In an even stranger turn, that rule has a sliding scale. If a player’s hat blows off once, or they drop a ball out of their pocket, it’s a replayed point. But if it happens again, they lose the point being played.
In New York, umpire Pascal Maria duly called a let. Berdych won the replayed point, broke Murray and ended up winning the first set.
A fuming Murray eventually won the match 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (9-7) in three hours and 58 minutes to reach his fifth Grand Slam final, where he beat Novak Djokovic for his first major title.
Max Mathews
Baseball: Pine tar on bat
One of Major League Baseball’s most notorious instances of an obscure rule technicality affecting the outcome of a contest came in 1983, with what became known as the “Pine Tar Game.”
Future Hall of Fame slugger George Brett cracked a two-run home run for the Kansas City Royals to put the visitors ahead of the New York Yankees, 5-4, in the top of the ninth inning.
However, controversial Yankees manager Billy Martin persuaded the umpires to inspect Brett’s bat, complaining loudly that it was coated with an excessive amount of pine tar, a substance used to aid the batter’s grip.
Following deliberations between the officials, it was adjudged that too much of the product had been used, Brett was called out, the home run was overturned, and the Yankees “won” the game, 4-3.
However, a Royals appeal to the league was successful and the game was restarted a month later, from the point immediately after Brett’s big swing, which now counted toward the 5-4 scoreline. Kansas City would hold on to secure the win.
Umpire Tim McClelland measures the pine tar on Royals’ George Brett’s bat (Getty Images)
Martin Rogers
Basketball: Untucked jersey leads to free-throw
There is an NBA rule that punishes untucked jerseys, and in December 2019, it helped Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns missed his first of two free throws, with just over a second left with the score at 121-119. Before taking his second, Minnesota subbed in Jordan Bell, and Chris Paul noticed something.
“That’s a delay of game! That’s a delay of game!” he said, reported The Athletic’s Erik Hone.
This was because Bell walked on the court with his shirt untucked, one of nine reasons a player can be called for a delay of game. Rule No. 12 A., Section II a. (9) says, “A delay-of-game shall be called for a player entering the game when beckoned by an official with his shirt untucked.”
A technical foul was given as it was Minnesota’s second delay-of-game warning, leading to OKC receiving and making a free throw.
Towns then made his second free throw to bring the score to 122-120. OKC went on to make a game-tying layup at the buzzer to force overtime and won 127-139.
After Paul had pointed it out, it was hard for the officials not to make the call, but they tend to be lenient on the rule. Players often come to the scorer’s table, where they are checked in the game, with their jersey untucked, and start tucking it in as they are stepping onto the court. It should be fully tucked in before a player enters the game.
Eduardo Tansley
Cricket: Weather changes entire scoring system
Cricket has never really found an adequate way to deal with the weather. The game can’t really be played in the rain. The ball becomes soggy and harder to grip. The outfield becomes sodden. Batters slip in their stance.
The modern Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method is probably the fairest system (if ridiculously complicated), but it could hardly be worse than the ‘rain rule’ adopted back at the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
In the event of a weather interruption of a limited-over game, it was deemed that the previous system — averaging out the runs-per-over of the first innings and then deducting from their total for each over lost by the side batting second — disadvantaged the side who batted first. (Stay with me here.)
Instead, when rain interrupted the second innings of a game, they decided that reduction in the target had to be proportionate to the lowest scoring overs of the side batting first. That would be ‘fairer’ for the side chasing. Apparently.
Except it was also open to farce. In the semi-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground, England scored 252 for six in their 45 overs. South Africa’s chase progressed through incessant drizzle and, with 13 balls left, they needed 22 to win. At which point, the rain became heavier, the conditions were deemed unfit and the umpires took the players from the field.
The total time lost was 12 minutes, so, under the tournament rules, two overs had to be deducted — the least productive from England’s innings. South Africa had bowled two ‘maiden’ overs (overs without any runs scored), so the target was not reduced, but the two overs were still removed from the chase, leaving Kepler Wessels’ side requiring 22 runs from one ball. In effect, they had been punished for bowling tightly.
To compound matters, the organisers failed to notice that England had actually scored a leg-bye in one of the maidens, meaning a run was taken off the chase: it became 21 runs required from one ball. Still impossible, but salt in South African wounds. A crowd of 35,000 reacted furiously as the nonsense played out on the big screen, throwing trash onto the outfield.
The single ball was bowled, South Africa took a single, and the batters stomped off the pitch in disgust and out of the tournament. Thankfully, the ‘rain rule’ went with them.
Groundstaff in Sydney uncovering the pitch following rain (Kate Callas/Fairfax Media via Getty Images).
Dominic Fifield
American football: Overtime rule sparks confusion
The NFL altered its rules for overtime in the postseason following the 2021-2022 AFC Divisional Round game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. The rule change — initiated before the 2023 season — meant both teams would get possession of the ball in overtime in the postseason, differing from the regular season.
Previously, if the team that was awarded possession first scored a touchdown, they were declared winners, with the opposition not getting a chance to respond.
The Chiefs-Bills 2021-22 AFC divisional playoff game saw two masterful displays from the quarterbacks as Patrick Mahomes put up three touchdowns (including one on the ground) for the Chiefs in regulation, while Josh Allen recorded four scores in the air.
The final one minute and 54 seconds of regulation time saw the teams score a combined 25 points as the Chiefs came back from a three-point deficit with 13 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
Kansas City won the coin toss and took possession of the ball, with Mahomes finding tight-end Travis Kelce for a touchdown to end the contest.
The NFL received plenty of backlash after the game for the overtime rule, which was changed to its current form with the support of 29 of 32 teams in the league.
Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024, which saw the Chiefs beat the San Fancisco 49ers 25-22, prompted conversations around the rule again. The game ended 19-19 at the end of regulation and San Francisco won the coin toss, opting to take the first possession, which was roundly criticised in the aftermath.
The 49ers settled for a field goal from fourth down before Mahomes found Mecole Hardman Jr. for the title-winning touchdown, bettering the field goal.
After the game, the 49ers’ defensive lineman Arik Armstead and fullback Kyle Juszczyk remarked that they were unaware of the new overtime rules, with Juszczyk adding that the team had not spoken about it beforehand, while coach Kyle Shanahan attributed his decision to a lack of experience with the rule.
The scoreboard after regular time at Super Bowl LVIII (Mario Hommes/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
Anantaajith Raghuraman
(Top photo: Ric Tapia/Getty Images)
