Points come from four kinds of play, each worth a different amount. A touchdown is six points, a field goal is three, and a safety is two. Then, straight after a touchdown, you get one bonus attempt called a try, worth one point if you kick it through the posts or two if you get the ball into the end zone again. That is the whole scoring system, and I will take each one in turn.
Here it is at a glance:
| Scoring play | Points |
|---|---|
| Touchdown | 6 |
| Field goal | 3 |
| Safety | 2 |
| Extra point (the kicked try) | 1 |
| Two-point conversion (the run-or-pass try) | 2 |
Why a touchdown is worth six, not seven
First, what actually counts as a touchdown. The NFL’s official rulebook scores one the moment the ball is “on, above, or behind the opponent’s goal line” while a player has legal control of it. That is why you will hear about the ball “breaking the plane”: it does not have to be carried deep into the end zone, an inch across the line is enough.
Now the points. This one confused me for longer than I would like to admit. A touchdown is worth six points, not seven. The seven you so often see appear on the scoreboard is six for the touchdown plus one for the kick that usually follows, and that kick is a separate play you can miss.
That follow-up is called the try, or the point after touchdown (the PAT). After scoring a touchdown, the team gets one attempt at bonus points. Kick the ball through the posts and it is worth one. Or, instead of kicking, run or throw the ball into the end zone from close range, and that is worth two. This second option is the two-point conversion, taken from the two-yard line.
For years the kick really was automatic. Then, in 2015, the league moved it back so that it is now taken from the 15-yard line, which makes it about a 33-yard kick rather than a tap-in. The effect was immediate: kickers had been making around 99 in every 100, and that dropped to about 94. Misses that used to be almost unheard of now turn up most weeks.
The most famous one shaped a conference final. In the January 2016 AFC Championship game, New England’s Stephen Gostkowski missed an extra point against Denver. He had not missed one in 523 straight attempts, going back nine years. It mattered right at the end: when the Patriots scored a late touchdown, that missing point meant a kick would still leave them one short, so they had to go for two to tie instead of one to draw level. The two-point try failed, and they lost twenty to eighteen. Gostkowski put it plainly afterwards: “I feel like I lost the game for the team.” One routine-looking kick in the first quarter decided how the whole game had to end.
One more wrinkle worth knowing, because it is on the same play. Since that 2015 change, the defending team can also score on a try. If they seize the ball during a two-point attempt and carry it all the way to the other end, they get two points of their own. It is rare, but it is real.
That is the try covered. Six for the touchdown, then a separate one or two you have to earn.
The field goal, three points
A field goal is worth three points. The kicker kicks the ball off the ground, and if it sails through the tall posts (the uprights) at the back of the end zone, the team scores.
Teams usually kick a field goal on fourth down, when they have run out of attempts to reach the end zone but are close enough to have a realistic kick at the posts. In practice that means once they are inside roughly the opponent’s 35-yard line, which sets up a kick of around 50 yards or less. The closer they are, the shorter and easier the kick. Miss it, and they score nothing and hand the ball to the other team.
For a sense of scale, a kick inside about 40 yards is fairly routine for a professional, anything past 55 is genuinely long, and the record, set in November 2025, is 68 yards. Most of the time, though, three points is a team settling: it took what it could get rather than risk coming away with nothing.
The safety, two points, and the only score the defence makes on its own
A safety is worth two points, and it is the one score the defending team can put up by itself, without needing the ball. It happens when the player carrying the ball is tackled in his own end zone, the area his team is defending.
It is the rarest of the regular scores, and it stings more than two points suggests, because after conceding a safety the team also has to kick the ball back to the other side. So the scoring team gets the points and the ball. There is even a one-point version, the single rarest score in the sport, which can happen on a try. You may watch for years and never see one, so file it under curiosity rather than something to learn.
Common questions
How many points is a touchdown?
A touchdown is worth six points, not seven. The seven you often see on the scoreboard is the six-point touchdown plus a separate one-point kick that usually follows it. That kick is its own play, and since 2015 it is missed far more often than it used to be.
How does a two-point conversion work?
After scoring a touchdown, a team can try for two points instead of kicking for one. From the two-yard line, it gets a single play to run or throw the ball into the end zone, just like a mini touchdown. Succeed and it is worth two, fail and it gets nothing.
What is a safety in American football?
A safety is worth two points and is the only score the defending team can make on its own. It happens when the player carrying the ball is tackled in his own end zone. The team that conceded it then has to kick the ball back to the other side.
Where to go next
- NFL Rules Decoded: how the whole game works.
- Overtime Decoded: how scoring settles a tied game.
- Penalties & Pass Interference Decoded: the other reason the scoreboard moves.
- Super Bowl records: the biggest scoring feats the game has seen.
- NFL stats explained: how all this scoring turns into numbers.
Want it straight from the source? The scoring rules are set out in the NFL’s official rulebook, and the league’s Video Rulebook walks through real scoring plays with clips.