Single (football)

Single (football)

In Canadian football, a single, also called a single point or rouge, is a special way to score one point. This happens when the ball is kicked into the end zone and is not brought back out. It’s a unique part of the game that adds an extra challenge for both teams. Singles are less common than touchdowns or field goals, but they can be very important in close games.

Rules

In Canadian football, a single point, also called a "rouge," is scored when the ball is kicked into the end zone but not brought back out. This can happen in many ways, as long as it’s not after a try or a successful field goal.

When a single is scored, the team that allowed the point gets the ball at their 35-yard line according to Football Canada rules or at the 40-yard line in the CFL. If the single happens from a missed field goal, the other team can choose to get the ball where the play started instead. Singles don’t count if the ball isn’t kicked, like after an interception or a fumble recovered in the end zone — those are touchbacks instead.

The CFL has talked about removing the single point but has not done so yet. The lowest-scoring CFL game ever was a 1–0 win by the Montreal Alouettes over the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1966, with the only point coming from a single.

Other football codes

In American football, teams cannot score just one point like in Canadian football. If the ball stops in the end zone, it is called a touchback. The team then gets the ball back at their 20- or 25-yard line. But a team can score one point with a conversion safety, which is also a rule in Canadian football.

Some indoor American football leagues, like the National Indoor Football League, the American Indoor Football Association, and the Professional Indoor Football League, have used the single. The Arena Football League started using it in 2024. A single can only happen on kickoffs if the team receiving the kick cannot move the ball out of their own end zone. In some leagues, kicking the ball through the uprights like a field goal can also score a single, called an uno, from the Spanish word for the number one. In other leagues, this type of kick is worth two points and called a deuce. The Arena Football League recognized the single in 2024, giving one point for a kick that reaches the end zone but isn’t moved out.

The idea of scoring one point, like the rouge, goes back to old sports in England. In games like Rossall hockey and the Eton field game, a rouge could be scored if the ball went into the end zone after hitting another player. The Sheffield Rules and the first rules of the Football Association in 1863 also used the rouge. The behind in Australian rules football and the point in Gaelic football, hurling, and camogie are similar, where a ball into the net scores more points, but over the crossbar scores just one.