> The laboratory for "let's do something crazy and see if it works" in football is college ball, though you are seeing pro ball get more adventurous in recent years.
The forward pass itself was actually an innovation that was introduced by UNC Chapel Hill into American football over 100 years ago. Before the forward pass, college teams simply brute-forced the ball forward.
"John Heisman, a noted historian, wrote 30 years later that, indeed, the Tar Heels had given birth to the forward pass against the Bulldogs (UGA). It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and give UNC a 6-0 win. The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to block the ball. The punter, with an impromptu dash to his right, tossed the ball and it was caught by George Stephens, who ran 70 yards for a touchdown.
Heisman wrote he was at the game standing near the action on the sidelines. He is emphatic that Pop Warner, who was coaching Georgia, protested to the referee to no avail. And he adds that he personally wrote Walter Camp, the final authority on football, of the possibilities of the ‘forward pass’ making football a new and more exciting game."
The forward pass itself was actually an innovation that was introduced by UNC Chapel Hill into American football over 100 years ago. Before the forward pass, college teams simply brute-forced the ball forward.
"John Heisman, a noted historian, wrote 30 years later that, indeed, the Tar Heels had given birth to the forward pass against the Bulldogs (UGA). It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and give UNC a 6-0 win. The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to block the ball. The punter, with an impromptu dash to his right, tossed the ball and it was caught by George Stephens, who ran 70 yards for a touchdown.
Heisman wrote he was at the game standing near the action on the sidelines. He is emphatic that Pop Warner, who was coaching Georgia, protested to the referee to no avail. And he adds that he personally wrote Walter Camp, the final authority on football, of the possibilities of the ‘forward pass’ making football a new and more exciting game."
http://tarheelmania.wordpress.com/2007/09/13/unc-invented-th...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_pass