[sagar]

If you can’t achieve the target, instead of improving, move the target closer.

[MtnClimber]

I completely forgot the rules from 1906-1911. Must be getting old!

[ml/nj]

Canadian football, right?

Canadians punt, don't they?

Touchbacks are VERY boring. Providing a reason not to take one and maybe play from the shadow of one's own goal-line seems like a good idea to me.

ML/NJ

[ml/nj]

Canadian football, right?

Canadians punt, don't they?

Touchbacks are VERY boring. Providing a reason not to take one and maybe play from the shadow of one's own goal-line seems like a good idea to me.

ML/NJ

[Jeff Chandler]

Few American football fans even know it.

Even fewer care.

[kidd]

Up until the 1950s you had to hold the guy with the football down on the ground for 3 seconds before he was considered tackled.

Of course Freepers who are 10+ y/o remember when you could actually tackle the quarterback, hit another player’s helmet, make a snow angel after a touchdown, or speak harshly, without getting a penalty

[FerociousRabbit]

“Pre-1906 football in America remains, in all likelihood, the most violent form of sport conceived by man since the Roman Empire.”

Might make it an interesting game to watch then.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Is the drop kick still allowed?

[cicero2k]

As it was, the Americans truly needed it. One thing they won't ever abide is boring, low-scoring football.

Which ties in to the fact that Americans never embraced "soccer", which is like watching paint dry.

To this day, I'm surpised that the rest of the world has not imitated us in this way.

Rome had gladiator duels all over the empire.

[Straight Vermonter]

How Football Explains America by Sal Paolantonio is a very readable book about the history of football and how it reflects the changes in America.

[Yardstick]

*bump*

[budj]

Nice, timely article, with the Super Bowl approaching, and especially on “Papa Bear” George Halas’s birthday!

[DuncanWaring]

Pre-1906 football in America remains, in all likelihood, the most violent form of sport conceived by man since the Roman Empire.

Part of the folklore of lacrosse is that it was created by the Original Americans as an alternative to war, and deaths were not uncommon.