Well...

the ball being in the endzone is defined as if it breaks the plane.

If the play ends with the ball being placed in your opponent's endzone, it is a touchdown. if it ends with it being placed in your own endzone, it is a safety (2 pts to the opponent). Therefore, the ball can never start further back than the 1 yard line. OK, this can be 1 inch, but it is still recorded as 1 yard line.

The longest ever recorded pass is 99 yards, which has happened 11 times. Similarly the longest ever rush is also 99 yards. In fact the maximum offensive play is 99 yards TD. You just cannot get longer by the rules. The distance is measured to the opponent endzone, so the yardage after breaking the plane is not counted.

They don't record the distance the ball actually travels in the air, but the net result of the play. So nobody knows the longest purely thrown ball ever. There are a couple with big arms in the league now including DaMarcus Russell of Oakland Raiders, and an old fave was John Elway of the Denver Broncos. Both could probably hoss it 60 yards in the air maximum if they were not rushed.

Thing is though, the further you throw, the further you need someone downfield to catch it. It takes them time to get there, so the more time you need before you can throw it. Therefore it you want to throw "deep" it is usually a "7-step-drop" which will mean you are under a lot of pressure when it is thrown.

Gus Frerotte on that one below impresses me because he has no room for a 7-step-drop and hosses it pretty well for a 3-step!

The longest possible plays are an interception / kick / punt / field goal return where the longest possible is 109 yards. In those cases, they do count the endzone yardage.

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Posted By: Steve in Holland, Dec 5, 14:55:43