In sports, a scorigami (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsscore Score or scorer may refer to: *Test score, the result of an exam or test Business * Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio * Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company * Score Media, a former Canadian m ...

'' and ''

origami ) is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a f ...

'') is a scoring combination that has never happened before in a sport or league's history. The term was originated by sportswriter

Jon Bois Jon Bois (; born September 24, 1982) is an American sports writer, video producer, and YouTuber. He is the creative director at ''SB Nation'', a sports blogging network. Bois is known for his speculative fiction works on sports, such as '' 17 ...

for

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

scores and is primarily used in this context.

History

The term was coined by ''SB Nation'' sportswriter Jon Bois in 2016 and most commonly refers to scores in

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

, particularly in the

(NFL). Bois charted all of the unique scores in professional football since the inaugural season of the

American Professional Football Association The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

in 1920. Due to the unusual point values in football compared to other team sports, the distribution of the chart was irregular. Bois noted scorelines that could occur but had not yet done so, referring to the occurrence of a never before seen scoreline as "scorigami". As an example, the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

' 43–8 win over the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

Super Bowl XLVIII Super Bowl XLVIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion fo ...

was scorigami, as no prior NFL game had ever finished 43–8. A notable feature of the chart that Bois created was the highly unlikely possibility, never fulfilled, of a team ending a game with a single point due to the potential for the defense to score a conversion safety. This renders 1-point totals theoretically possible for the losing side against opposition scores either exactly 6, or 8 or more. Since the term's inception, a Twitter bot has tracked scorigamis in the NFL. The most recent scorigami for an NFL game was when the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

defeated the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

by a score of 22–18 on December 24, 2022, being the 1,075th unique score. Bois and other media observers have noted the tendency of the Seattle Seahawks under head coach

Pete Carroll Peter Clay Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American football coach who is the head coach and executive vice president for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head football coach at USC from ...

to create scorigamis; Bois dubbed Carroll "the wizard of modern Scorigami, without question". From 2011 to

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, the Seahawks had exactly one scorigami per season. Carroll himself has acknowledged his team's frequent scorigamis, joking to reporters after another game with a unique score: There has been occasional uses of the term for other sports. On September 9, 2020,

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

(MLB) had its first scorigami in 21 years, a 29–9 victory by the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in B ...

over the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fra ...

—the previous scorigami for an MLB game had been a 24–12 win by the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

over the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fi ...

on May 19, 1999.

References

{{reflist

External links

NFL Scorigami website

Chart Party: Scorigami, or the story of every NFL final score that has ever happened

ESPN video on Scorigami
2016 neologisms National Football League culture Portmanteaus SB Nation Sports records and statistics Statistical analysis