Alternating Sets Of Downs

A Tidbit published a few days ago described how American football transitioned between 1906 and 1912 from requiring teams to gain five yards in three downs to ten yards in four downs. Some prominent coaches argued that teams should gain eight or fifteen yards in four downs, but they adopted the four downs to gain ten yards approach, which remains the rule today. — www.footballarchaeology.com
Timothy P Brown takes Football Archaeology into the thought of one innovative coach to alternate the number of downs teams would have and even eliminate the game clock.

Hut! Hut! Hike! Pro Bowl

The Hut! Hut! Hike! series examines the origins of football terminology and how the game’s evolution drove changes in its vocabulary. Over 400 football terms are defined in my newest book (published in November 2022). This article is #3 in a follow-up series to the book. — www.footballarchaeology.com
Timothy P. Brown delivers an excerpt from his outstanding book Hut! Hut! Hike! on how the term Pro Bowl came in to our modern frame of reference.