Hall of Fame show (Roaf in, Shields out)

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by cdcox

I've seen footage of those old games. You kind of had to hold the guy down after you tackled him. If a defender collided with the ball carrier forcing him to stumble to the ground, he wasn't really down. He could get back up or crawl along the ground for extra yardage.

Was the rule that you had to stop the guy from being able to make progress?

I remember reading in the very early days of football that a touchdown wasn't scored until the ball carrier literally touched the ball to the turf, which is why you see in some of the really old films a guy would cross the goal line and then bend at the waist and make the ball kiss the ground. Generally there was a gentleman's agreement to let the guy touch the ball down if he crossed the goal line, but occasionally if a guy bulled his way in there would be a wrestling match as the defender tried to keep the ball carrier from touching the ball. The rule was something like any defender who touched the guy once he was across the goal line could try to keep him from "touching it down". I don't remember if it was in college or the pros, but apparently there was one stalemate where one or two defenders literally kept a runner from touching the ball down for some enormous amount of time, and there was no rule that let the refs stop the play.