Welcome back to Peculiar Side of Sports. Every so often something in sports perplexes me. So, I do what any normal, sane sports fan does – I search ad nauseam for the answer by any means necessary. The good news is that I take all my hard work and relay the results to you. If you are a fan of Sports History, check out the other articles I have written in my column.
Peculiar Side of Sports: How the Touchdown Has Evolved
Rather than backtracking to the early days of professional rugby-football in North America, let’s begin by highlighting the jist of current rules in the NFL, NCAA, and CFL, just to make sure we’re on the same page. Most are self-explanatory and you are surely comfortable with understanding each.
Highlights of Current Rules
- the ball is on, above, or behind the plane of the opponents’ goal line and is in possession of a runner
who has advanced from the field of play; or - a ball in possession of an airborne runner is on, above, or behind the plane of the goal line, and some
part of the ball passed over or inside the pylon - a ball in player possession touches the pylon, provided that, after contact by an opponent, no part of
the player’s body, except his hands or feet, struck the ground before the ball touched the pylon - any player who is legally inbounds catches or recovers a loose ball (3-2-3) that is on, above, or behind
the opponent’s goal line - the Referee awards a touchdown to a team that has been denied one by a palpably unfair act.
Earliest Rules Associated with Touchdowns
Interestingly, there are still some vocabulary that is leftover from the very earliest roots of North American football — rugby and soccer. To this day, a score after a touchdown is still referred to as a “try”, which in rugby is a major score worth five points. Also, the earliest “touchdowns” were scores where a player literally touched the ball to the ground, as is still the case in rugby today.
While some cite Rutgers vs. Princeton as the first game of modern football, the rules were far more leaning to soccer than to rugby, so I favor the argument that modern football began when McGill University (Montreal) visited Harvard in 1874, bringing with them their “McGill Rules” and oblong ball. At that time, each major score (a try) was kicked, and the team was awarded a team a single point. There were not points awarded after a try. The leaning towards rugby as opposed to soccer is what popularized the growing sport.
Early rules were formalized in 1876 between Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Columbia, and were first adapted in 1880 by Walter Camp to include the line of scrimmage and quarterback snap, the game was changing shape, but was still not a professional game. The emphasis on scoring plays was still much different than today, with great emphasis on the kicking aspect of the game. The most points (5) were granted for field goals, while four points were awarded for touchdowns and another two were given for a converted touchdown (based on 1883 rules).
Early in the development of football, the value on scoring plays changed frequently with an ever-increasing devaluation of the kicking component of the game, and increased preference for the touchdown. Rules changed in 1889 that allowed for players to score touchdowns simply by crossing the goal line with the ball (as opposed to having to literally touching the ground with the ball), resulting in more frequent scores. There was also the increased valuation of touchdowns making them at least on-par with field goals as early as 1898, while conversion values were reduced to a single point.
Growing Game, Changing Rules
The game was growing rapidly, with new colleges being added to the original four, including Michigan, Northwestern and Minnesota, which joined several others to form what was the first conference and precursor to the Big 10 (originally the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives — essentially the Western Conference).
Touchdown valuations changed several times at the turn of the century (1904, 1909, 1912), with 1912 being a pivotal year. At that time, a touchdown was deemed to be worth six points, with a single point awarded for a successful conversion (originally taken from the five yard line as in the Canadian version still used today). Not only that, but before 1912, a pass caught beyond the goal line was considered a “touchback” and the result was a loss of down. In 1912, however, the “end zone” became part of the game, allowing players to catch a ball beyond the goal line.
This is also why American fields are 100 yards and Canadian fields are 110 yards: many American stadiums couldn’t be expanded upon, so to add end zones, the 110-yard field was shortened to 100 yards.
Modern Football and Refinement
Few major changes have happened since the early changes in football rules. The NFL — the original league, before the merger with the AFL — changed the placement of the goal posts to sit on the goal line, as is still the case in the Canadian version of the game.
The current NFL has also flip-flopped between post-touchdown points, with adopting the option for two-point conversions that the Canadian game (1975) and College game (1978) in 1994. It must be said that the AFL, the league that merged with the original NFL to form the current league, had the two-point option but it was not carried over at the merger.
Another difference between the NFL and Canadian/College games revolve around what is deemed as a complete pass near the sideline or dead ball line. In the NFL, a player needs to have both feel land entirely in the field of play, whereas only one foot is required in the Canadian and College games. Further, for a period of time, the NFL had removed that provision if a player caught the ball and would clearly have landed in-bounds, but was forced out by a defender before his feet landed. The rule has since been reverted back to the original.
Up for Discussion
NFL’s Roger Goodell has gone on record having supported rule changes in the past, claiming that because success rate is nearly 100%, a change would certainly add some excitement for a play that is for all intents and purposes, a run-through. CBS Sports quoted Goodell as saying;
“The extra point is almost automatic. I believe we had five missed extra points this year out of 1,200 some odd. So it’s a very small fraction of the play, and you want to add excitement with every play. There’s one proposal in particular that I’ve heard about: It’s automatic that you get seven points when you score a touchdown, but you could potentially go for an eighth point, either by running or passing the ball, so if you fail, you go back to six.”
While the issue is not at the fore currently in the NFL, the idea has not dissipated entirely.
In an article from the Toronto Star in reply to Goodell’s suggestions, reports indicate that the CFL had also discussed the idea of changing the point after touchdown.
CFL Head of Officiating Glen Johnson was quoted as saying;
“Our rules committee discussed the idea of eliminating or altering the convert several years ago and as recently as last year. We plan on continuing to explore this idea, but no change is imminent. We discussed several alternatives over the years, including changing the rule so teams are automatically rewarded seven points for a TD, and giving them the option to risk losing a point or gaining an additional point by trying a two point convert . . . or changing the distance of a kicked convert, making the convert always a play from scrimmage.”
The touchdown remains one of the most exciting plays in sports. The evolution from being a less important part of the game borrowed from soccer and rugby, to the blossoming and refinement in the early 20th century under pillars like Jim Thorpe and Glenn “Pop” Warner, to the masterful aerial attack from more modern offenses, has been at the very root of how the game has changed — and has change us —over the years.
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