The game of football has a history of constant rule
changes. Rule changes have been implemented to bolster
the excitement of the game of football and to increase
the game's safety.
By 1906 the game was extremely rough,
and many injuries and some deaths had occurred.
Educators considered dropping the sport despite its
popularity on campuses. United States President Theodore
Roosevelt, an ardent advocate of strenuous sports,
declared that the game must be made safer. As a result,
football leaders revamped the game, and many of the
rougher tactics were outlawed.
In a constant attempt to
maintain public interest in the game, NFL rulemakers
review trends in their sport. For example, in the early
1970s, the rulemakers brought the hash marks in closer
to the center of the field to give offenses more room to
throw wide. The move, which increased scoring and made
the game more exciting, also helped bolster the running
game. Ten NFL runners gained more than 1000 yards in one
season (1972) for the first time in history. During the
next season, Buffalo Bills' running back O.J. Simpson
rushed for more than 2000 yards, the first time a player
had gained that many yards in a single season.
However,
the passing game eventually suffered as defenses quickly
adjusted. The Pittsburgh Steelers had a stranglehold on
the NFL during the 1970s, with four Super Bowl
victories. The dominant defensive athletes the Steelers
put on the field shut down the wide-open passing attacks
that had developed in the previous era. By 1977 scoring
was the lowest it had been since 1942, while offensive
touchdowns had fallen to their lowest levels since 1938.
The rulemakers enacted serious measures after this
low-scoring 1977 season, fearing a loss of public
interest in the defense-dominated game. They established
a zone of only five yards from the line of scrimmage in
which a bump by a pass defender was permitted. Offensive
linemen could extend their arms and open their hands on
pass blocks.
Offenses responded slowly, but by the 1980s
they began to score again, and a renewed spirit of
defensive innovation began. To counter the improved
passing game, a new breed of defensive player emerged.
While speedy defensive backs covered equally fast wide
receivers, a player called the rush-linebacker emerged
with one specialized duty: pressuring the quarterback.
With no pass-coverage responsibilities, the fast and
strong rush-linebacker focused his attention on the
quarterback or the running backs. The New York Giants'
Lawrence Taylor, perhaps the best player of all time at
this position, demonstrated the importance of the role
by leading New York to a Super Bowl victory in 1987.
Soon longer passes became more difficult to complete.
Defenses choked off the short pass and defied the
quarterback to throw long, assuming that their rush
would get to the quarterback first.
Additionally, zone
defenses, which had been used since the 1920s, became
more complex and harder to read. Offenses stalled. Domed
stadiums, with their overpowering crowd noise, made
communications a problem. Teams resorted to kicking
field goals in greater numbers than ever before, rather
than risking the attempts at touchdown passes.
Artificial turf helped improve the accuracy of the
kicks, but scores still fell. In order to stall this
trend, the league's rulemakers stepped in again after
the 1993 season, penalizing teams attempting field
goals.
Now, when a team misses a kick, its opponent
receives the ball at the point of the actual kick rather
than on the line of scrimmage. Because the ball is
usually kicked from about seven or eight yards behind
the line, coaches must factor the rule into their
strategic planning. |
