Fans of both soccer and the NFL briefly lost their minds on Sunday evening when Dolphins kicker Caleb Sturgis attempted a rabona onside-kick. A rabona is a soccer move where a player wraps one-leg around the other to kick the ball.

The onside kick was unsuccessful in that the Dolphins didn’t recover, but it was totally successful in the fact that I now love Caleb Sturgis with my whole heart.

The move was especially fun for soccer fans because of how stupid the rabona is…it’s very rarely necessary, and usually just comes about because someone doesn’t want to kick the ball with their weaker foot, like when Tottenham’s Erik Lamela scored the most wonderful, stupidest goal of the Premier League season.

With an onside kick, though, the rabona is brilliant. The kick goes the opposite direction from what the defense is expecting. It didn’t work…but I wouldn’t be surprised if Sturgis used it again.

I also love how Dolphins fans are convinced the rabona was a bad idea because it didn’t work. Onside kicks are recovered by the kicking team less than 20% of the time. Just because this didn’t work this time doesn’t mean it’s a bad play, it just means that a low-percentage play didn’t work, much like onside kicks usually don’t work.

Sturgis probably won’t use this again, because people are results-oriented and if something new/different doesn’t work they freak out. He should though. It opens up the field, and at the very least, it will make defenses have to cover both ends of the field.

Also, it has worked before:

Last fun fact: Caleb Sturgis’ big brother is Nathan Sturgis, a 27-year-old MLS veteran who just finished his season with Chivas USA. I’m guessing big bro taught little bro something about that kick.

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