At my little school, we called it “Kill Ball”, and everyone loved it, especially when the PE coaches got involved.
We also got to play flag football and occasionally the PE coach would play with us. We were all determined to take him out (get his flag). I did, once. Unfortunately I blind-sided him (because he was concentrating on evading the bigger male students) and he accidentally ran into me, knocking me off my feet and several feet away. “Last Name! Are you okay?” Me, still on the ground: “I...got you!” Everyone started laughing. It was awesome.
Peach
In the 60’s,We played tackle football drive way to drive way. Then one fall, about 4th grade, the biggest kid showed up with pads. All the neighborhood kids hit up the sears catalog for Christmas and most of us got pads that year. It was a defensive move by the parents. We played every year from 2nd through 6th grade and other than bruises and a little missing skin from getting tackled in the end zone ( both concrete driveways) no one got hurt. We learned to take hits and be good sports. And a lot of us are still good friends to this day.