A tackle below the waist was included in this prohibition. This was changed in the late 1880s to allow tackling above the knee. There was a rule against tripping the ball carrier, and this included tripping with the hands and arms. Formerly the tackle had to be from the waist up. The second change was a loosening of restrictions on the legal tackle. The American version abandoned this restriction for interesting reasons I might write about some time, resulting in the obvious tactic of having blockers run ahead of the ball carrier. Originally it was the Rugby rule, that any players ahead of the ball were offside, and could not participate in game play until they were onside. In modern American football the offsides rule is reduced to requiring that players on offense not cross the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped. The first was the de facto abandonment of the traditional offsides rule.
This arose in response to two developments. But few actually know what it was.įirst we need to introduce the concept of a mass play. Many football fans are aware that there was a play called the ‘flying wedge.’ After all, this is a totally cool name for a play. Specifically, the flying wedge, the greatest play in football history. In honor of the new NFL season I am taking a break from writing about obscure points of baseball history and instead writing about an obscure point of football history.
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