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Originally Posted by JugglingReferee
You have to tell me more! I like the history of the game just like you do!
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It dates from before there were helmets, but it lasted considerably into the helmet era, just don't ask me for dates. Among the items listed as RP was "scragging", which was not defined in the rule book, it was just common rugby terminology at one time. Eventually that wording in the UR & RP provisions was replaced with, approximately, "tackling about the head or neck in an unnecessarily rough manner" around the same time as "tackling out of bounds in an unnecessarily rough manner" came in. Previously the rule had theoretically forbidden either practice entirely, as is the case now again for tackling out of bounds.
Until about a quarter century ago, Canadian football was known as a rougher form of the game -- slow whistles, liberal interpret'n of the UR & RP provisions. RP wasn't an automatic DQ, only a warning or discretionary DQ for 1st violation.
Robert