Immaculate Reception.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Steven Tyler

What was the reason for the "double touching" rule? Neither the offense or defense could do it if I remember correctly? I never saw it to really serve any purpose of sportsmanship.

They didn't want it used as a means of passing the ball.

In Canadian football it was allowed as a means of controlling but not advancing a forward pass. So, until about 20 yrs. ago, if one player deflected the ball forward to a teammate who would've been eligible to receive the original, the teammate could still catch it, and the play would be ruled "completed pass followed by offside pass", the point at which the ball was deflected or batted taken as the point of completion of one pass and origin of another, the 2nd being illegal, so loss of down at that point. It's still possible in Canadian football to have a completed forward pass chain with an illegal link somewhere in it, depending on receiver eligibility.