Weird rule from Saints-Lions wasn't mentioned during AFC Championship

That strange rule no one seemed to know about had a major impact on the Week 1 game between the Saints and Lions. And there’s a reason no one knew about it, beyond the fact that it apparently had not been applied in years, if ever.

A very similar play happened during the AFC Championship. But the rulebook’s get-out-of-backward-pass-free card was never mentioned.

It started with 2:59 to go in the first half. The Broncos, leading the Patriots 7-0, had the ball at their own 33, facing third down and four. Denver quarterback Jarrett Stidham (not Drew Brees) got the snap in shotgun formation. Stidham dropped back, apparently looking to set up a screen pass. Patriots linebacker Christian Ellis gave chase.

Stidham started his throwing motion. Before he got rid of the ball, Ellis made contact with Stidham. The pass, which was initially deemed to have gone forward, ultimately was determined to have been a backward pass, recovered by the Patriots.

The main source of the controversy — and the post-game pool report — was the decision to rule the play dead upon recovery, taking New England‘s touchdown off the board.

Said referee Alex Kemp after the game: “I initially ruled it as a forward pass, which was incorrect. I proceeded to go through the administration of an intentional grounding foul. The down judge and the umpire came and talked to me and provided more information. The down judge explained that he extended his right arm to signal that he had a backward pass and at that point we determined that New England had picked up the then backward pass. We awarded possession to New England with no advance, because at that point we are not allowed to permit an advance.”

There was no mention during or after the game about the possibility that Ellis’s contact with Stidham after he started his throwing motion meant that any pass thrown was necessarily a forward pass, even if it went backward. That’s the quirk that saved the Lions from a defensive scoop and score by the Saints in Week 1.

Now, it’s possible that a frame-by-frame review of the play would have resulted in a ruling that Stidham started his throwing motion, ended it, and got hit by Ellis before starting it again. But it was close enough that the rule no one knew about should have been mentioned, and arguably fully explained, at some point in the process. Because it would have been a forward pass, even if it went backward, if the final ruling was that Ellis had hit Stidham after he began his throwing motion.

And so, instead of the Patriots getting screwed by the ruling on the field of a forward pass, it’s possible the Broncos got screwed by the failure to apply the rule that worked against the Saints on Sunday. But no one knew about it, because no one knew about the bizarre rule that turns a backward pass into a forward pass.

Bottom line? If that rule had been mentioned, discussed, and/or applied in the AFC Championship, 48.6 million football fans would have become aware of it. And it wouldn’t have been nearly as stunning to first learn about this rulebook quirk in Week 1 of the 2026 season.