What Is a Hail Mary in Football? The Last-Second Pass Explained

A Hail Mary is a long, desperate forward pass thrown toward the end zone in the final seconds of a half or a game, when the offense is too far away to score any other way. The quarterback heaves the ball high, several receivers crowd under it, and everyone hopes one of them comes down with it. The name comes from a Catholic prayer, and it entered football vocabulary for good after Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach used it to describe a game-winning playoff touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in December 1975.

This guide covers what separates a Hail Mary from an ordinary deep pass, the story behind the name, how offenses set it up and defenses try to stop it, the rules that matter on the play (pass interference, untimed downs and simultaneous catches, all checked against the 2026 NFL rulebook), and a handful of famous examples. If you are still learning the basics of downs and scoring, our beginner's guide to American football is a good place to start.

What counts as a Hail Mary

There is no rulebook definition of a Hail Mary. It is a description, not a type of play the officials recognize, so the rules that apply are exactly the rules for any forward pass. Fans and broadcasters use the term when a few conditions line up:

• Time is almost gone. It is usually the last play, or one of the last, before halftime or the end of the game.
• The offense is far from the end zone, typically somewhere between its own 35-yard line and the opponent's 40, too far for a realistic field goal and too far to move the ball in small chunks.
• The pass is thrown high and deep into the end zone, or right at its edge, rather than to a specific open receiver.
• Several receivers are in the area, and so are most of the defenders.

A perfectly thrown 50-yard touchdown to a wide-open receiver in the second quarter is just a deep pass. The "Hail Mary" label is about desperation: the offense knows the odds are poor and throws anyway because nothing else gives it a chance.

The phrase also escaped football a long time ago. Americans call any last-ditch, low-odds attempt a Hail Mary, from a final job application to a late business pitch. In that sense the football play gave the language a new idiom.

Where the name comes from: Staubach to Pearson, 1975

The play that made the term famous happened on December 28, 1975, in an NFC divisional playoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, the Vikings' open-air home at the time. Minnesota led 14-10 late in the fourth quarter. Dallas worked the ball to around midfield with 32 seconds left, and Staubach then threw a pass of roughly 50 yards toward wide receiver Drew Pearson.

Pearson was covered by cornerback Nate Wright. The two made contact as the ball arrived, Wright went to the ground, and Pearson pinned the ball against his body near the 5-yard line before stepping into the end zone. The touchdown came with 24 seconds left, and Dallas won 17-14.

After the game, reporters asked Staubach what he had been thinking. His answer, as quoted on the Dallas Cowboys' own website: "When I closed my eyes I said a Hail Mary." Staubach has said an Associated Press writer picked up the remark, and from there it spread across the sport.

The play was not clean history for Minnesota. Vikings players and fans argued that Pearson pushed off Wright and should have been flagged for offensive pass interference. No flag was thrown. In the anger that followed, an object thrown from the stands (accounts on the Cowboys' site and History.com describe a whiskey bottle) struck field judge Armen Terzian in the head. Dallas went on to beat the Los Angeles Rams 37-7 in the NFC Championship Game before losing Super Bowl X to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-17.

How the offense sets it up

Most teams have a specific Hail Mary play in the playbook and practice it, even though it might be used only a few times a season. The details vary, but the outline is familiar.

Before the snap

The work often starts a play or two earlier. With seconds left, a quarterback may complete a short pass, then spike the ball to stop the clock. The NFL rulebook allows this: a quarterback can stop the game clock legally by throwing the ball straight into the ground immediately after taking the snap. Each spike costs a down, so teams use it only when they have a down to spare.

The offense then sends out a formation built for one throw. A common look puts three, four or even five receivers on the field, often bunched to one side, with the fastest players on the outside and the tallest players in the middle. Some teams add a tall tight end as an extra target.

The throw and the jump ball

Once the ball is snapped, the receivers sprint to a landing area near the goal line rather than running separate routes. The offensive line has one job, which is to give the quarterback time to roll out or step up and launch the ball as far and as high as he can. Height matters as much as distance, because a high throw gives the receivers time to gather under it.

In the end zone, the receivers usually split into roles:

• One or two "jumpers" go up for the ball and try to catch it or tip it.
• A "tipper" may deliberately bat the ball forward or sideways, hoping a teammate is in the right spot.
• One or two "trailers" stay a few yards in front of or behind the pile, waiting for a deflection to fall to them.

That tip drill is why so many successful Hail Marys look chaotic. The first touch is often a deflection, and the catch comes from a receiver who was in the right place, not from the intended target.

How defenses defend a Hail Mary

On paper the defense holds every advantage. It knows what is coming, and it only has to keep the ball from being caught in the end zone. A typical plan looks like this:

• Rush only three or four players and drop everyone else into deep coverage, so there are more defenders than receivers near the goal line.
• Keep the deepest defenders behind the receivers, so nobody can sneak in behind the pile.
• Send the tallest defenders and best leapers to the landing spot.
• Knock the ball down toward the turf rather than up or sideways. A pass batted into the ground ends the play; a ball tipped into the air is a live ball that anyone can catch.

The last point is where most defensive breakdowns happen. Defenders are trained to catch passes, and an interception would also end the threat, but a failed catch attempt can leave the ball bouncing around a crowd of receivers. Coaches spend a lot of practice time on simply swatting the ball down.

The other common mistake is positioning. If a defender drifts too deep or turns away from the ball, a receiver can catch it in front of him. Several famous Hail Marys were caught by a player standing alone at the front of the end zone while defenders were stacked behind him.

The rules that matter on a Hail Mary

A Hail Mary is still a normal forward pass, so the regular rules apply. Four of them come up again and again on these plays, and all four are taken from the 2026 NFL rulebook.

Pass interference in a crowd

The rulebook says that while the ball is in the air, eligible offensive and defensive players have the same right to the path of the ball and face the same restrictions. Contact between players who are both genuinely playing the ball is incidental, and the rule states that if there is any question whether contact is incidental, the ruling is no interference. That is why a jump ball with five bodies colliding rarely draws a flag.

What is still a foul: grabbing an opponent's arm, pushing off to create separation, playing through an opponent's back, or cutting off a player without looking for the ball. Defensive pass interference rules apply from the moment the ball is thrown until it is touched, so once someone tips the pass, contact on the next player is no longer interference.

The penalties are lopsided. Defensive pass interference gives the offense a first down at the spot of the foul, and if the foul happens in the end zone, the ball goes to the 1-yard line (the rulebook adjusts that only when the previous spot was already inside the 2). Offensive pass interference is a 10-yard penalty from the previous spot, and any touchdown on the play is wiped out.

The untimed down

Under Rule 4, Section 8, if time expires during a play, the play continues until it ends. If the defense commits a live-ball foul on that play and the penalty is accepted, the offense can choose to extend the period with one untimed down after the penalty is enforced. A foul by the offense on the last play does not earn an extra down, and a score by the offense on that play does not count.

In plain terms, a game cannot end on an accepted defensive foul if the offense wants one more snap. So a defense that interferes in the end zone on a final-second Hail Mary hands the offense a first-and-goal from the 1 with no time on the clock. Defenders know this, which is one more reason they try to play the ball and nothing else.

Simultaneous catches and spikes

If a pass is caught simultaneously by an offensive and a defensive player and both keep hold of it, the rulebook awards the ball to the passing team. It is not a simultaneous catch if one player gains control first and the opponent grabs on afterward. This rule decides a surprising number of Hail Mary arguments, because the play so often ends with two players wrestling for the ball on the ground.

The spike rule from earlier also has a limit. A quarterback who delays and then throws the ball into the ground can be flagged for intentional grounding, so the spike has to be an immediate, continuous motion right after the snap.

Famous Hail Marys worth knowing

Beyond the 1975 original, a few plays come up whenever Hail Marys are discussed. These are the ones whose details we could confirm with reputable sources.

• Boston College at Miami, November 23, 1984. Quarterback Doug Flutie threw a long pass on the final play that Gerard Phelan caught for a 48-yard touchdown, and Boston College won 47-45. Flutie won the Heisman Trophy that season, and the throw remains one of the best-known plays in college football history.
• Seattle vs. Green Bay, September 24, 2012. Russell Wilson's last-play pass to Golden Tate was ruled a simultaneous catch by replacement officials working during the NFL referee lockout, giving Seattle a 14-12 win. Many viewers saw an interception instead. The play became known as the "Fail Mary," and the lockout ended two days later.
• Green Bay at Detroit, December 3, 2015. The Packers trailed 23-21 when the clock appeared to run out, but Detroit was flagged for a face mask on the final play. That gave Green Bay an untimed down from its own 39-yard line, and Aaron Rodgers threw a 61-yard touchdown to tight end Richard Rodgers for a 27-23 win. It is a textbook case of the untimed-down rule.
• Green Bay at Arizona, January 16, 2016, NFC divisional playoffs. Aaron Rodgers hit Jeff Janis for a touchdown on the last play of regulation to tie the game 20-20 and force overtime, which Arizona won.
• Arizona vs. Buffalo, November 15, 2020. Kyler Murray found DeAndre Hopkins in a crowd of three Bills defenders in the final seconds, and Arizona won 32-30.

The Green Bay and Arizona playoff game also shows that a successful Hail Mary does not guarantee a win. It only gets the offense back into the game, and in that case the overtime that followed went the other way. Our guide to NFL overtime rules explains how those extra periods work today.

When teams throw one and when they try something else

The decision is mostly about distance and time. A Hail Mary only makes sense when one play is likely all that is left, and when the offense is too far for a realistic field goal. If the team needs only 3 points and is within its kicker's range, it kicks. If there are 20 or 30 seconds left and a timeout or two, it usually tries a couple of quick passes toward the sideline first, to get closer and buy a shorter throw.

At the end of the first half, the math is different. A failed Hail Mary before halftime costs almost nothing, because the half ends either way. Teams often throw one just because a free chance at 7 points is better than kneeling down.

The other last-play option is the lateral play, where players toss the ball backward to each other again and again, hoping someone breaks free. Backward passes can be thrown any number of times, but they rarely gain a full field, and every toss risks a fumble. Teams usually pick the lateral play when they are too far even for a Hail Mary, typically deep in their own territory.

Because the clock in football stops and starts in specific ways, the last two minutes of each half produce a lot of these one-play scenarios. Our explainer on how long a football game lasts covers the clock rules behind them.

Quick reference: watching the last play

Use this checklist the next time a broadcaster says a team is "in Hail Mary territory":

• Check the clock and the yard line. As a rough rule of thumb, under 10 seconds and 45 or more yards from the end zone is classic Hail Mary range.
• Count the receivers. Four or five going out usually means a jump ball is coming.
• Watch the deepest defender. If he stays behind every receiver, the defense is set up well.
• Look for flags near the goal line. Defensive pass interference in the end zone with no time left means one more snap from the 1-yard line.
• On a catch in traffic, wait for the ruling. A true simultaneous catch goes to the offense; a ball one player controlled first does not.
• Remember the term is a nickname. Officials treat it exactly like any other forward pass.