2009 NFHS Football Questionnaire

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Cobra

The problem of excessively penalizing the offense for holding was eliminated when the penalty was reduced to 10 yards.

Which makes one wonder why they increased it from 10 to 15 to begin with. AFAICT it was intended as a simplifying move -- to have only 5 & 15 yard penalties -- and that's the way it stayed for decades in all American codes. NFL broke that pattern. Canadian football meanwhile stuck with a 10 yard penalty for illegal use of hands.