By Darin Could you imagine modern football without the breathtaking deep pass? Before quarterbacks were slinging spirals, American football was a brutal, ground-level game of mass and momentum. Expert Timothy P. Brown, author of How Football Became Football, reveals the incredible journey of the passing game, from an illegal move to the sport's greatest weapon.
Author and historian Tim Brown visits the Pigpen to help us understand how the forward pass became legal in football and why. Time has some great books: How Football Became Football & Fields of Friendly Strife, both of which I highly recommend you get your hands on to learn more about the game's history. Also, Tim has a great website called Fields of Friendly Strife, where he shares some brilliantly recorded history of the game.
The Early Era: A Game of Muscle and Mayhem (1869–1905)
When football first began in the late 1860s, it was, quite simply, rugby. While slight tweaks were made, the game remained "rugby-esque" until about 1890, when rules allowing tackling below the waist pushed the sport toward powerful, close-quarters collisions.
This led to the infamous "mass and momentum" era.
- Mass: Multiple blockers would lead the runner, often grabbing the runner’s sewn-on handles to pull them through the line—a constant, full-field version of goal-line football.
- Momentum: There were no restrictions on the number of players who could be moving forward at the snap. Teams would use "guards back" formations and charge the line simultaneously, slamming into the defense to overrun a few players.
This style of play was inherently dangerous, leading to severe injuries and deaths. By the 1905 season, schools were threatening to cancel their programs, bringing the game's safety crisis to a head.
The Push for Reform: Roosevelt and Rule Changes
The uproar over player safety—fueled by newspaper reports tracking deaths (many of which were sandlot players, not college stars)—forced the ruling elite of college football, namely Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, to act. While President Theodore Roosevelt’s involvement is often "overblown," his high-profile pressure helped galvanize the movement for reform.
The traditional powers were initially reluctant to change the game they had grown to love, arguing the danger was the fault of poorly coached, less-equipped schools. However, the formation of an organized reform group (which eventually became the NCAA) compelled the old guard to compromise.
In 1906, major changes were implemented, including the approval of the onside kick from scrimmage and, crucially, the forward pass.
The Birth of the Forward Pass (1906–1912)
The idea of a "forward pass" was already common—it just meant a lateral or pitch that inadvertently went forward and was therefore illegal and penalized. When the forward pass was legalized in 1906, it was not seen as a revolutionary strategy but as a new form of "forward lateral." Committee members even thought it might be a temporary fix.
The earliest passing game was handicapped by:
- Restrictions: The passer had to be five yards to the right or left of the center to throw, eliminating any concept of a quick pass or bubble screen.
- Turnover Rules: If the ball traveled more than 20 yards downfield, if it landed untouched, or if it crossed the goal line on a bounce, it was a turnover.
- The Ball: The ball was a rounded, thick, watermelon-like rugby ball, making it nearly impossible for anyone without exceptionally large hands to throw an overhand spiral.
The first successful legal forward pass occurred in September 1906 when Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University—who had large hands and had learned the overhand spiral—threw a successful pass in a game against Carroll College.
The 1912 Breakthrough
The passing game remained restricted until 1912, a year nearly as impactful as 1906. The rules were loosened significantly:
- The 20-yard downfield limit was removed.
- The pass could be thrown into the end zone.
- The field length was reduced from 110 yards to the modern 100 yards with 10-yard end zones, a change necessary because of the concrete stadium limitations (like Harvard’s) and the configurations of baseball parks where many games were played.
- The game moved from three downs to four downs to gain 10 yards.
This rule liberalization finally set the stage for teams to conceptualize the pass as a weapon. The sport's seminal moment came in 1913 when Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais of Notre Dame shocked the football establishment by throwing the ball all over the field to defeat Army, forever changing how people thought about the potential of the forward pass.
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We would like to thank the National Football Foundation, Pro Football Hall of Fame, On this day.com and Pro Football Reference Websites for the information shared with you today.