Saint_LB

Peyton's TD record should have an * next to it. Why? I feel that it is no coincident that his record came during the first year of the new "enforcement" of the shuck rule. There was a time when the DB could bump the receiver anywhere on the field, as long as the ball was not in the air yet. This made it a lot more difficult for the receivers to get open, thus meaning less scoring, which is why the rule was changed. With this in mind, it got me to thinking about all the changes in the rules and other aspects of the games over the years. Some of you younger guys may not even be aware of these changes, and you may find them surprising. I started thinking about all the changes, and realized that it has changed so much that I could never cover all of them, but here are a bunch of changes that I thought might come as a surprise to some of you.

We now have replay challenges, which is relatively new, but did you know that there was a time when we didn't even have instant replays?

The goal post use to be on the goal line, and were H shaped. Now they are 10 yards back on the end-line, and are Y shaped. This meant that all field goals became 10 yards longer. This use to bother me when I kicked in high school, because I would kick a 40 yard field goal from the 30, and it would come out in the paper as a 30 yard field goal. Also, in the old days, there were a lot of people running into the goal post during a play, thus prompting the decision to move them back and out of the way.

Kickers were all straight-on kickers...yep, there was a time when there were no soccer-style kickers. Now, there are no straight-on kickers. Also, a lot of kickers also played other positions.

QB's always took the snap from under center until someone, and I can't remember who was first, realized that on obvious passing downs it would be much more convenient to take the snap from the shotgun position.

The kick-off was from the forty yard line.

The schedule consisted of 6 preseason games, and 14 regular season games. If I had my way, there would be 20 regular season games, and 0 preseason games...but, can you imagine having to wait 6 weeks for the first real game?

There were no nickel and dime DB's.

There were no free agents. You either played for the team that drafted you or you didn't play.

There was a time when there were no domed stadiums or artificial turf.

There were two leagues, the AFL and the NFL. They merged at some point in time and became the NFL, with two conferences, the AFC and the NFC, prompting the birth of the Superbowl...I think. I can't remember for sure whether they called it the Superbowl before the merger, or whether the AFL champion ever played the NFL champion. Maybe someone can help me out on this one.

There were no overtime periods...so, there were a lot more ties. When is the last time you saw a game end in a tie?

There was no Monday night football.

There were no 2 point conversions.

The clock use to stop when a player went out of bounds until the next snap. Now, the clock stops only long enough to spot the ball, unless it is within the last two minutes of the half, where the old rule applies. This caused the game to last a lot longer, so, to satisfy the TV people, they changed this rule ito shorten the length of the broadcasts.

Offensive lineman were not allowed to use their hands in any way, and had to keep them tucked into their chest. Obviously, the linemen's job was much tougher, and there were a lot more sacks. This was one of the first of many rules that were established in an effort to protect the QB.

There use to be a rule regarding punting and fair catching, where a team could call for a fair catch and immediately afterwards they could call for a free kick. This rule would only come into play when there were only a few seconds left in the half. The way it worked was if you called for and completed a fair catch sucessfully, you could send your kicker in to try a field goal without any rush from the defense. Basically, he could just tee it up and kick it. This play was rare, and I personally only saw it attempted once. As fate would have it, it was the Saints that I saw try one, and I think it was against the then St. Louis Cardinals in old Tulane Stadium...a game that I just happened to be at. If my memory serves me correct, they missed it, of course. I don't think this rule is still in the books, because I have never seen it happen again. I suppose it is possible that the rule still exists.

There are many, many more changes. Some I have already forgotten since I first started typing this thread. Feel free to add any that I have left out. There is one thing that has not changed, and it is beginning to look like it may never change....the Saints have still not gone to the Superbowl. Some things will never change!!





[Edited on 23/1/2005 by Saint_LB]

turbo_dog

The funny thing is, the rule was a direct result of last year\'s Colts/Patriots playoff game. Notice the Colts still didn\'t win the match this season.

I thought the extra ten yards was counted on a field goal. Are you sure it isn\'t?

Saint_LB

Yes, the extra ten yards does count. What I was trying to say was that people, such as the newspapers, would not give you credit for the extra 10 yards, because, before the chalnge the field goal would be from whatever yard line you kicked it from. It took people a while to realize this, so they wouldn\'t give you credit for it, in error. In other words, I would kick a 40 yard field goal from the thirty yard line and they would call it a 30 yard field goal instead of a 40 yard field goal, which it really was. It also meant that teams had to drive the ball 10 yards further before they could try the field goal. If a kicker\'s range was 50 yards, they had to advance the ball to the 33, allow 7 yards for the snap and placement, and then 10 yards for the end zone to total 50. Previous to the change, they only had to make it to the 43.

Whether you think you can or think you can't...you're right!

GumboBC

Tom Landry came up the the \"shotgun\" formation.

And yes the game has changed. The league wants more scoring these days.

What\'s the saying?

Offense sells tickets and defense wins championships!!

That still rings true.

JKool

I don\'t have anything really to add, but I did want to say nice post to LB on this one. It was fun to read, a bit of a trip down memory lane, and so far no one mentioned . I don\'t think I ever knew about the free kick rule - cool.

Kristomac

Lotsa changes fer shure. I like most of them, and think a few more could be made (different overtime process).

The only problem with the argument for an asterix next to Manning\'s record, is that the rule changes applied to everyteam and every QB. If the re-emphasis on the bump rule was responsible for Manning\'s record, why didn\'t everybody other QB post better passing yards?

Saint_LB

Well, I wasn\'t really serious about the *, but I did think that it was interesting that the record was broken the very first year that they started enforcing the 5 yard rule, and, that it was a direct result of last year\'s playoff game between Indy and Pats, as t_d pointed out in his post.

JKool

K-mac,

Good point. Overtime should be changed. Sudden death, c\'mon. Surely the NFL can do better than that! Even the college rules are better. Even just playing out the extra quarter in its entirity seems like a better idea - a game that has been played for 60 minutes and planned and trained for for a week should not be decided (even if only most of the time) by a coin toss. Bah.

LKelley67

12 and 14 game schedules. jim bown\'s stats extrapolated to a 16 game schedule puts him 15.024 yds in 9 yrs. friggin 5.2 yds a carry! i can\'t begin to imagine my fave all time QB johnny U in today\'s passer friendly environment. those guys performed with today\'s roughing the passer as a part of every other pass. the game has changed so much there is no statisical comparison you can make between an otto graham to sonny jurgenson to dan marino to manning.

Danno

Beautiful. I almost teared up. I\'ve said the same thing 100 times, just not quite as well.

Question: What do you get when you combine Vick\'s atheleticism with Brady\'s precision, in 1960\'s era football?
Answer: Johnny Unitas.