Dualing Goal Posts

Unless you are Canadian or an American over 45, your entire life has been lived during a time when every goal post knew its place: on the end line. It wasn't always so. Many of us lived in a world where goal posts stood over the goal line, the end line, or both.

The uprights stood on the goal lines from the game's beginning until the college rules committee moved them to the end lines in 1927. Justified for safety reasons, they also wanted to make extra points more challenging when many wanted to get rid of the extra point altogether.

In 1927, the high schools and pros used the college rule book, so the goal posts stepped back ten yards in every stadium. However, things changed in 1933 when the NFL created its own rule book. In doing so, they returned the goal posts to the goal line, where they stayed until 1974. At that point, the pros decided soccer-style kickers had put too much foot into football, and the pros joined the rest, placing their goal posts on the end line.