Excerpt from The Forward Pass in Football

The history of football has been a story of limiting the power of the offense. The defense has never been restricted, never curtailed, never hampered, always free to line up as it chose, to go when it pleased (barring offside), where it pleased and do practically as it pleased. Always the offense has been too strong, too powerful, and there has been the necessity of legal restrictions directed toward equalizing the attack and defense. This was true in general up to the "revolution" when ten yards and the forward pass came and the "new" game was created.

With the forward pass a great, new, unknown offensive weapon was provided. The history of the game since the granting of this new method of attack has again been chiefly a story of limiting the power and effectiveness of this new offense. To be sure minor changes in the rules have had other motives and objectives, but taking it by and large the statement is true to fact.

A brief review of the conditions of the "old" game will recall to players and spectators of that period the situation, and perhaps help all of us to better appreciate and understand the changes that brought the "new" game.

Mass plays predominated. Possession of the ball was vastly important. Five yards were to be made in three downs. If a man six feet tall could fall forward his full length three times he would make six yards and first down. Consequently "fall forward," "get your distance," were slogans of the old game.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Forward Pass in Football (Classic Reprint) (Elmer Berry)