Pittsburgh Steelers: Chris Boswell's embarrassing onside kick fail should never be forgotten

Chris Boswell’s attempt to get the Pittsburgh Steelers back into the game against the Baltimore Ravens will remain an all-time classic fail. 

Kickoffs in the NFL have started to lose their relevance in recent years, with player safety becoming more and more important, the percentage of kicks that result in touchbacks has skyrocketed over the years as the league brought the kickoff line forward from the 30-yard line to the 35-yard line ahead of the 2011 season.

And to an extent the same thing has happened with onside kicks, following changes to the rules in 2018 which limited the kicking team’s running start and making it harder for them to recover, teams have taken to some rather unique ways of trying to make them useful again.

Arguably the most famous of which came from the Dallas Cowboys and their attempt to trick the Atlanta Falcons during the 2020 season when the receiving Falcons just watched the ball roll rather than diving on it, allowing the Cowboys to recover and later win the game.

2020 – Matt Ryan puts up 4 touchdowns and 273 yards passing, but the Atlanta Falcons special teams doesn’t know how to recover a onside kick. So they lose. pic.twitter.com/ivUia5r2UU

Things didn’t always use to be this way, but that doesn’t mean that teams weren’t creative with their efforts, although as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chris Boswell found out against the Baltimore Ravens in 2016, sometimes it doesn’t work out for you. 

The Steelers and Ravens make up one of the most fearsome rivalries in the NFL in recent years, and games between the two can often go a long way to deciding the winner of the AFC North, and in 2016 that was no exception, with the Steelers entering the game 4-3 and the Ravens at 3-4.

The Ravens held a 21-7