So, the other day, I was watching a football game with my friends, and a question popped into my head: do sacks count as negative rushing yards? I mean, it seems like they should, right? The quarterback gets taken down behind the line of scrimmage, so it feels like a loss of yards. But I wasn’t sure, so I decided to do some digging.
First, I started checking out some sports forums. I figured, who better to ask than a bunch of die-hard football fans? Well, it turns out, I got a mixed bag of answers. Some people were all like, “Yeah, of course, sacks are negative rushing yards. It’s obvious!” But then others were saying, “Nah, man, sacks are their own thing. They don’t count as rushing or passing yards for the quarterback.”
Online Research
This made me even more curious, so I started looking at official NFL rules and stats websites.
- I went through the NFL rulebook, which I thought was gonna be super dry, but it was actually kind of interesting.
- I spent a few good hours on their site, just clicking around and reading different articles.
After some searching, I finally found the answer. It turns out that in the NFL, sacks do not count as negative rushing yards for the quarterback. But there are also some interesting points.
- Sacks are counted as team passing yards lost.
- Sacks are not counted as either positive or negative yards for the quarterback.
And there’s more, In college football, however, sacks are counted as negative rushing yards for the quarterback. The difference between the two levels of football is amazing.
So there you have it. It might seem a little weird, but that’s how they do it in the pros. It’s all about keeping the stats clean and consistent, I guess. But, I’ve got to say, finding the answer was like its own little detective story, and I actually learned a lot more about football than I expected!
