DC Defenders use UFL's fourth-and-12 onside kick alternative to win last-minute comeback

With less than a minute remaining in today's United Football League game, the Arlington Renegades led the DC Defenders 28-18. But the Defenders managed to win, thanks to a rule that exists in the UFL but has been rejected by the NFL.

That rule is the onside kick alternative, which allows teams to follow a scoring play not with a kickoff, but by taking the ball at their own 28-yard line, facing fourth-and-12.

For the Defenders, they first scored a touchdown and two-point conversion to cut their deficit to 28-26. Then on fourth-and-12 from their own 28 they picked up the first down to keep the ball. The Defenders quickly marched into field goal range from there and kicked the game-winner as time expired.

It's the second consecutive week that a team in the UFL has used the fourth-and-12 rule to mount a successful comeback, and it makes the ends of games more exciting. In the NFL, onside kicks have become almost impossible to recover, which makes comebacks harder. The UFL alternative is a rule that promotes fan-friendly football with more fantastic finishes.

The NFL has considered various alternatives to the onside kick, including a fourth-and-20 option that was voted down this year but so far hasn’t adopted one. Perhaps seeing it work well in a spring league could convince the NFL to adopt it as well, just as the NFL has adopted the kickoff rule previously seen in the XFL. Spring football should be a laboratory for innovative rule changes, and we're seeing in the UFL that the onside kick alternative is a rule change worth adopting.