The Forgotten 4-Point Touchdown Rule in Football

Published on September 11th, 2025 5:17 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


When the NFL first kicked off in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, a touchdown was not worth six points. It was worth four. That's right - scoring the most iconic play in football carried less value than it does today.

This rule traces back to the sport's roots in rugby. In the late 1800s, the touchdown itself wasn't the ultimate goal - the "try" simply gave a team the right to attempt a kick. Kicking was king, and touchdowns were just a way to set up the real scoring play. Early American football carried that DNA.

By 1883, the touchdown was set at 4 points, the field goal at 5. A made field goal literally outweighed crossing the goal line. That imbalance shaped the early game. Teams schemed more conservatively, often settling for a kicking attempt rather than driving for the end zone. It wasn't until 1904 that the touchdown value was raised to 5. Then in 1912, the modern standard of 6 was introduced.

When the NFL adopted its scoring framework in 1920, it mirrored that system. The six-point touchdown was the baseline, the extra point was tacked on as usual, and the field goal had dropped to 3. But the four-point touchdown era still lingered in living memory. Coaches who played in college before 1912 had spent their careers in a different scoring universe. Their tactics reflected it.

Consider this: in 1905, there were just 2.6 points per team per game scored via touchdowns in college football. Field goals accounted for nearly half of all scoring. By the 1920s, once touchdowns carried more weight, the numbers flipped. Teams scored more touchdowns than field goals by nearly a 3-to-1 margin.

If touchdowns had stayed at 4 points in the NFL, the ripple effects would have been massive. The value of a reliable kicker would have skyrocketed. Games would have tilted toward lower scores. Betting markets would have looked completely different - point spreads tighter, totals set far lower. Imagine a 17-14 NFL game today. With four-point touchdowns, the same output might have been 11-9.

By modern standards, the 4-point touchdown sounds almost unthinkable. But in the earliest years of organized football, it was simply the way things worked. And the change to 6 reshaped the entire sport.