Why Every NFL Player Should Be Diving on Loose Balls - Just Ask the Seahawks
If there’s one lesson the entire NFL should take from Thursday night’s wild finish, it’s this: when the ball hits the turf, you pick it up. No hesitation.
No assumptions. Just scoop it.
The 49ers, now sitting in the driver’s seat for the NFC’s No. 1 seed thanks to Seattle’s dramatic overtime win over the Rams, are already making sure their players got the message. Head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters Saturday that the team addressed the play - and the principle behind it - in meetings earlier that day.
And it wasn’t just a casual mention. Shanahan took it back to his early days in the league, recalling a scrimmage against New Orleans when defenders were diving on what looked like obvious incompletions.
At the time, he admits, he didn’t get it. “I remember how much I used to make fun of them for it,” he said.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t they know that’s incomplete?’”
That mindset changed in 2008, during a game between the Broncos and Chargers. Denver quarterback Jay Cutler fumbled a snap while trying to pass.
The officials mistakenly blew the play dead, thinking it was an incomplete pass. The Chargers recovered - game over, right?
Not quite. Because of the early whistle, the recovery didn’t count.
Denver kept the ball and went on to win. That moment sparked a rule change the following offseason.
Since 2009, the rule has been clear: if a ball is on the ground and a team clearly recovers it - even if the whistle blows - the recovery stands. The play is dead at the spot of the recovery, not where the ball first hit the ground. That’s why coaches have been drilling it into players ever since: if it’s loose, treat it like it’s live.
But Thursday night’s chaos took that principle to a new level.
On a two-point conversion attempt - a play where the ball is typically dead once it's ruled no good - Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet scooped up a ball that nobody else seemed to think was live. According to Charbonnet, he didn’t know it was still in play.
He just reacted on instinct. A habit.
One that ended up helping Seattle win the game.
Actually, scratch that - it did help them win the game. Shanahan didn’t mince words: “The two-point conversion was one that seemed a little bit over the top because it didn’t look obvious to anybody that that was the case.
But someone had a habit of grabbing it and it ended up probably helping them win the game. Not probably, it did.”
That “someone” was Charbonnet, and that moment is now a textbook example of why coaches harp on fundamentals like this. It’s not just about hustle.
It’s not just about effort. It’s about understanding the rules and playing through the whistle - or even past it.
Because in the NFL, one loose ball can flip a game. Or a season.
This isn’t just a quirky rulebook anecdote. It’s a reminder that the smallest decisions - the ones made in split seconds - can have massive consequences. The Seahawks are still alive in the playoff race because a running back followed his training, even when he didn’t know it mattered.
And now that the 49ers have a clearer path to the top seed, you can bet Shanahan’s players won’t be second-guessing the next time they see a ball on the ground. They’ll be diving on it.
Every coach should be showing that tape. Every player should take note. Because in today’s NFL, the ball’s never truly dead until it’s in someone’s hands.