Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss pretends to pull down his pants and moon the crowd after scoring a touchdown in the second half.
Posted on 09/08/2010 12:27:27 PM PDT by Kaslin
It is ironic that the most boring contest ever played -- the Princeton-Yale game of 1881 -- helped make American football the world's greatest game.
The college men who invented American football in the decades after the Civil War approached the game with the same imaginative spirit that drove American capitalism in that era. When their invention did not work, they simply reinvented it -- until they developed something thrilling to players and fans alike.
Even the dullness of the 1881 Princeton-Yale game was driven by an irrepressible inventiveness.
The rules and precedents of that year gave Princeton an incentive to develop a game plan for a scoreless tie -- and they executed it with mind-numbing brilliance.
How did such an incentive arise?
Games containing the essential elements of football have existed since ancient Greece. But written rules for such games are relatively new in the English-speaking world. It was only in 1871 that the Rugby Football Union drafted its initial rules at a London restaurant.
Two years before that, when Princeton and Rutgers competed in the first-ever home-and-home intercollegiate football series, each game was played by the home school's rules. Both were more like soccer than either rugby or American football.
After watching Harvard play rugby against Canada's McGill in 1874, players at Princeton and Yale decided it was a better game. As recounted by early football historian Parke H. Davis (a former Princeton player and Lafayette and Wisconsin coach), two Princeton players invited counterparts from Harvard, Yale and Columbia to meet in Springfield, Mass., on Nov. 26, 1876, to form an "Intercollegiate Football Association" and adopt a uniform set of rugby-style rules.
Yale objected to two of the rules adopted: one allowing teams to field 15 players (as opposed to the 11 Yale wanted); another that included touchdowns as part of a complicated scoring system (Yale wanted only kicked goals counted).
As related by the late Delaware football coach David Nelson in "Anatomy of a Game," Yale player Walter Camp attended the 1878 IFA meeting, calling for a reduction to 11 players. He was ignored. Princeton defeated Yale that year and took the national title.
Camp attended the IFA meeting in 1879, again calling 11-player teams and also for safeties to count in the scoring. At the time, a team making a safety lost no points and got to retain possession at its own 25 yard line. Camp's proposals were rejected again. That year Yale tied Princeton 0 to 0, while Yale only took two (unscored) safeties to Princeton's five.
The IFA gave Princeton the title -- carrying over its 1878 championship.
Camp again attended the 1880 IFA meeting. This time, he won two rule changes. Teams were restricted to 11 players. More fundamentally, one team at a time would now be given undisputed possession of the ball, which they could put in play be snapping it back -- by foot -- from a scrimmage line. American football left rugby behind.
"This is the device which introduced into our game the principle of an orderly retention of the ball by one side, thereby making possible the use of prearranged strategy, the most distinctive and fascinating characteristic of the American game," wrote Parke Davis.
Yet there was no limit to the number of downs a team could keep the ball, so long as it did not fumble or kick downfield.
In the second half of that year's Princeton-Yale game, with the score tied 0 to 0, Princeton held the ball to run out the clock. In the process, the Tigers took 11 unscored safeties. Princeton then claimed it had retained a national title it had not won on the field for two years. Yale claimed the title for itself.
The 1881 IFA meeting adopted a rule to give negative value to safeties in a game tied after two overtimes: "If the game still remains in a tie, the side which makes four or more safeties less than their opponents shall win the game."
At the 1881 Princeton-Yale game, the lawyerly Tigers unveiled a new stalling tactic: the touch-in-goal. This was achieved by throwing the ball to a player standing in the angle of space behind the goal line but beyond the sideline. As with an old safety, this allowed the offending team to retain possession on it own 25. Princeton held the ball for most of the first half; Yale, replicating Princeton's tactics, held it most of the second. They tied 0 to 0.
Princeton again claimed the title based on 1878. Yale counterclaimed, pointing out it had played a superior game against Harvard that very year -- when Harvard scored four safeties to Yale's none. The title went to Yale.
After the 1881 Princeton-Yale debacle, some argued that the American colleges should give up their unique rules and simply conform to the British rugby game.
American college players would have none of it. As Coach Nelson reported in "Anatomy of a Game," Camp again attended the rules meeting in Springfield, Mass., on Oct/ 12, 1882. This time he proposed the concept now known as a first down -- only as originally approved a team needed to get five yards in three downs to retain possession of the ball. The rule was accepted.
A new game was born -- wholly American and unmatched by any other in the world.
The NFL is a collection of general population rejects that can barely play the game.
When did this happen? Was it in the news?
NFL loves Obama and runs pro-OBama ads. They smeared Rush Limbaugh.
Baseball is boring and soccer, well soccer is gay.
Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss pretends to pull down his pants and moon the crowd after scoring a touchdown in the second half.
Unlike their current counterparts, even those Ivy-Leaguers knew to try something different after years of futility.
Shhhhh. The season is upon us. It’s better not to antagonize the inmates.
Um. Ok.
BTTT
I will take baseball over football any day. There is more stategy involved, there is no time clock so one can relax while watching a game and the defense controls the ball. I know many consider it boring but I find it refreshing in a world dominated by speed an instant gratification. Sitting on my deck at night, smoking a cigar and listening to a ball game is the most relaxing thing in the world. Footbal is hyperactivity on steroids...
The NFL is a collection of general population rejects that can barely play the game.
I have not watched the NFL for ~20yrs. Can’t stand anything about. The league, the players, the buisness, etc.
I may watch a college game once or twice a year (Roll Tide)..but that is stretching it.
I love to watch our local High School games.
Coaching my son and his team (8-9-10 year olds)has been the thrill of my life.
The greatest game is lacrosse.
This guy has never carried a purse a day in his life...
If you’re an Iroquois
I love both sports, but baseball reminds me of leisurely summer nights. I'm especially blessed to be able to listen to Vin Scully call games out here in LA.
Which team do you listen to?
The college game has it all over the NFL in terms of excitement. The BSU/VaTech game was better than any regular season NFL game. As for the playoffs, I’d rather have the BCS than have 10-6 and 9-7 teams make the playoffs.
They went on and on about the "RUKKERS" team. If they can't spray it they need to be demoted to PEE WEE Herman football!
Agreed. Lacrosse is the world’s greatest game.
If I want relaxation I’ll watch baseball. If I want action I’ll watch rugby or Aussie Rules football. If I want fast-paced tactics I’ll watch soccer.
Football is too top-down for me, all the plays analyzed and ordered for the players to execute in the few seconds of action you get at a time. Boring. Soccer develops as it goes, with all the players individually responsible. Think of what would happen in if the coaching staff of one team suddenly disappeared before a football game. They’d get murdered. A soccer team could still play effectively.
It’s like the difference between the Soviet and American armies. The Soviets were rigid, no room for individuality, kill the lieutenant and the platoon falls apart. American units are taught to operate independently if necessary, with even the lowliest private being taught how to read a map.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.