Okay, so, today I’ve gotta tell you about something that’s been bugging me in football. I was watching a game the other day and saw a quarterback get sacked. It got me thinking, “Is a sack negative rushing yards?” So I dove in to find out.
First off, I looked at how the NFL handles this. Turns out, in the NFL, sacks do NOT count as negative rushing yards against the quarterback. Yeah, you heard that right. They don’t count as negative passing yards for the quarterback either. Instead, they record sacks as negative TEAM passing yards. I mean, it makes sense, but it’s kinda weird when you think about it. The team’s overall passing yardage takes the hit, not the individual player’s stats.
Then I got curious about college football. So, I checked the NCAA rules, and guess what? It’s totally different. In college, sacks DO count as rushing yards for both the player and his team. It’s kinda wild, right? A play that starts as a pass ends up counting against the rushing total. I found myself scratching my head over this one. It just seems off to me that a sack, which is clearly a passing play gone wrong, would hurt a team’s rushing stats.
I also stumbled upon some interesting tidbits during my search. Like, did you know that some folks out there are actually debating whether sacks should count as negative passing yards? Some argue that it makes more sense since it’s a passing play, after all. And then there are others who are like, “Nah, it’s all good as it is.”
In my little investigation, I looked at a bunch of different sources. I read through articles, checked out some forums, and even went through the official NFL rule book just to make sure I got it right. It was a bit of a rabbit hole, but I wanted to get to the bottom of this.
Here’s what I found, in a nutshell:
- NFL: Sacks = Negative team passing yards, not individual.
- NCAA: Sacks = Negative rushing yards for both player and team.
My Final Thoughts
After digging around and seeing all the different perspectives, I gotta say, it’s a pretty interesting topic. There’s no definitive right or wrong answer, and both systems have their own logic. But I’m leaning towards the idea that sacks should probably count against passing yards. It just feels more intuitive to me. Anyway, that’s my take on the whole sack and yardage situation in football. What do you guys think?
