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Originally Posted by JPC75
One recent rule change I hate is that a kicking team on a kick off can not advance a free ball that they recover.
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"Recent"? Unless you're talking Canadian, that value of "recent" makes for the really looooong view of American football! In another thread I'm criticizing Mr. Redding for a quote that essentially equates his lifetime (or less) with the entire history of football, but looks like the opposite problem here. (Please don't tell me they made that change recently in Football Canada or CFL.)
Seriously, the only codes I know of in 11-a-side that allow team K to advance their free kick are
possibly the IWFL and
possibly Big Apple Youth Football, and I suspect an editing error in the case of the IWFL and officials' errors in BAYF. Arena Football allows it. 11s banned it faaaar back in the 20th C, maybe even before NFL & Fed rules diverged from NCAA.
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Originally Posted by RichMSN
That's not a recent rule change. The kicking team has never been allowed to advance a kick that wasn't possessed and then fumbled by the receivers.
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Sorry, Rich, your "never" betrays the opposite problem from JPC75's use of "recent". The rule's old, but not original equipment.
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Originally Posted by somebody_whose_handle_I_forgot
Wonder why they changed it (back in the early dawn when football separated from Rugby). Did the U.S. rulemakers feel there would be too much excitement on recovered onside kicks?
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Combination of 2 factors:
- safety
- desire to separate attacking from defending functions
Factor #1 says the safest ball is a dead ball. Fed went the farthest in this regard, killing the ball for more reasons than any other code. However, I see that Fed has reversed that tendency somewhat in the last decade or two.
Factor #2 is purely a matter of taste. Going back to 1880 there's been a desire in American football to make the offense beat a prepared defense, rather than allowing unexpected possession to provide spontaneous play. (Even Canadian football hasn't been devoid of that sentiment, as shown during a brief period when fewer points were awarded for an "unearned" try -- pouncing on a ball left by opponents behind their goal line -- than for an "earned" one -- advanced by the attacking team.) That operated in allowing team A an
uncontested scrimmage to begin with, and was also a factor in the NCAA's keeping for so long their rule forbidding advance of an opponent's grounded fumble or muff (which, however, was originally adopted to encourage risky lateral passes).
Robert