The NFL goal line is eight inches thick. Eight inches. Eight inches of crisp, white paint stretched out across the 53-1/3-yard-wide playing field. It separates the green grass of the playing field from brightly colored end zones.

It’s kind of hard to miss.

We’re not talking about some faint, low-budget, rec-league-quality paint job. This is pro football with either permanently painted lines, or high-quality work of professionals using state-of-the-art equipment. This time of year, there is no snow covering to make the goal line hard to distinguish.

And yet, another NFL player had difficulty figuring out how far he had to run to complete the act of scoring a touchdown on Sunday.

The latest stooge: Arizona Cardinals running back Emari Demercado, who casually let the football slip from his fingertips at the end of a 71 15/16-yard run, thinking that he had scored a 72-yard touchdown. But he hadn’t. The ball instead floated through the air just shy of the goal line, hit the turf and rolled out the back of the end zone. Instead of a score that would have put Arizona up 27-3, the play resulted in a touchback for the Tennessee Titans. The play also sparked a turnaround that saw the hapless Titans score 19 unanswered points and earn their first victory of the season.

He let the ball go too early! Touchback! 😮

TENvsAZ on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/ZHxNItODj2

— NFL (@NFL) October 5, 2025

Poor Demercado. Maybe if the third-year pro (a backup who entered the league as an undrafted rookie in 2023) had found himself face to face with the goal line more than four previous times in his NFL career, and more than 10 times in college and more than 20 times in high school, he would have realized that he had to hang onto the ball just two steps longer on Sunday to complete a touchdown. Or maybe, after sprinting all that way with defenders in hot pursuit, Demercado simply wore down and found that 14-ounce pigskin too heavy to tote one step further? Gotta eat your Wheaties, kid.

Amazingly, or ridiculously (you pick), Demercado was just the latest to commit this easily avoidable transgression. Just last week, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Adanoi Mitchell lost control of the ball before crossing the goal line because he was too busy celebrating to maintain possession to complete a 75-yard catch-and-run. NFL history has seen household names like Jonathan Taylor and DeSean Jackson rob themselves of touchdowns because they lost sight of the goal line.

But was Demercado’s the most egregious? Given the impact it had, his fumble just might have been.

Mitchell’s gaffe, which occurred in Week 4, took place as he was trying to switch hands and hold the ball out for all to see, and the butterfingers moment resulted in a touchback rather than a touchdown. The Colts seemed to shrug off the moment and later took a second-half lead before falling 27-20 to the Los Angeles Rams. The Mitchell fumble loomed large after the Colts’ first loss of the season, though.

Adonai Mitchell cost his team a touchdown when he dropped this ball just before the end zone in Week 4 against the Rams. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

In another painful Colts moment, Taylor last season unwittingly fumbled at the end of a 40-yard run that resulted in a touchback, and the Denver Broncos responded by scoring 24 unanswered points in a 31-13 victory. Also last season, Cincinnati Bengals safety Jordan Battle thought he was about to score on a 61-yard fumble return but lost his grip of the ball as he approached the end zone. The Bengals still handily beat the Titans 37-27 though. And in another 2024 forgettable moment, New York Jets rookie Malachi Corley flipped the ball behind him in a Week 9 game on what would’ve been the first touchdown of his career, but at least the Jets won that game over the Houston Texans.

Jackson famously tossed the ball behind him before crossing the goal line as a rookie in 2008, and the Philadelphia Eagles did lose 41-37. But his fumble didn’t result in a touchback at least, and his team scored a touchdown on the very next play. So the cost of his transgression was minimal.

Demercado’s moment triggered a complete change of the tide, however. The Titans appeared as inept as ever before turning that spark into a rallying point. The comeback helped them avoid falling to 0-5. The Cardinals, meanwhile, fell to 2-3 rather than improving to 3-2, which would have helped them keep pace in a hotly contested NFC West.

The Cardinals played at home on Sunday, but had it taken place in Nashville, no one would have blamed coach Jonathan Gannon if he made the running back walk back to Phoenix.

NFL players shouldn’t have to be told to hold onto the ball until they are deep into the end zone, but maybe coaches should demand their players run out the back of the end zone before they let go of the ball. Or maybe teams should start fining players game checks if they commit such an egregious act. That would get everyone’s attention. A release is too harsh a punishment, right? Or is it?

Demercado said that he will try to put the mistake behind him. “You just have to,” he told reporters after the game. “Can’t get it back. Nothing I can do about it, so why keep holding on to it?”

Yeah, why hold onto the moment? He couldn’t hold onto the ball either. And just as he can’t get the play back, the Cardinals can’t get that game back. He’d better hope that loss doesn’t impact Arizona’s playoff chances.

Despite the attempt to shrug off the play, you can bet Demercado will cling extra tightly to the football should he ever find himself in scoring position.

You’d like to say that perhaps his moment will serve as a lesson for others. But given the way Mitchell’s similar transgression had no impact on Demercado’s thought process on Sunday, his play versus the Titans will also likely quickly fade into memory.

Some other NFL player will eventually also space out and forget to glance down and make sure he has crossed that eight-inch snow-white stripe before tossing the ball aside. The rest of us will scream at our TVs and rip our hair out.

(Top photo of Emari Demercardo and Cardinals running backs coach Autry Denson: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)