Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss the relationship between the Canadian rouge or single and the two-point conversion in American football.
Very interesting videos. I was aware of the "conceded point" / rouge in Canadian ball. The problem I see in adopting it for the American game is twofold: 1) the shortness of the field (100 yards rather than the 110yds/100meters of Canadian, and 2) the shallowness of American end zones at 10 yards instead of 25 yds/22 meters in Canadian. Both of the larger Canadian dimensions (including a 75 yd wide field instead of 53 1/3 make for more exciting play with the rouge. Also, the idea of conceding a point if a kick goes through the endzone would likely impact American punting quite a bit. I forgot to add that, being a former rugby player, coach, referee, and administrator, the Canadian field is, of course, based upon the rugby pitch. Much more room for action.
I'm not suggesting or advocating for the addition of the rouge in American football. It's more about showing how two closely related games solved the same issue differently. Some early versions of English rugby has the rouge and it became part of the Canadian game but not the American game. It also point out that there would be major opposition to adding the rouge to the American game now, just as there was when we added the two-point conversion in the late 1950s.
You are correct, I believe, in your assessment (which I share) that there would be "major opposition." The one big plus, it seems to me, in introducing some sort of rouge would be to force the receiving team (particularly with the punt, not the kick-off) to--if the ball is received or would "finish" in the end zone--to force the receiver to carry the ball out of the end zone, thus providing some "consolation" to the team that has advanced the ball deeply enough to reach the end zone on a punt. Indeed also, Rugby rules have changed quite a bit since the inception of the game at Rugby School in 1823 when, according to legend, William Webb Ellis, "with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his day, picked up the ball and ran with it." [Thank God!] But in the earliest days and well into more modern times, the "Try" ("touchdown"--which in Rugby still requiredd that the ball be "touuched down") was worth 0 points. It only gave the try-scoring team a "Try" at a "conversion" [a term still being used] into points.
Very interesting videos. I was aware of the "conceded point" / rouge in Canadian ball. The problem I see in adopting it for the American game is twofold: 1) the shortness of the field (100 yards rather than the 110yds/100meters of Canadian, and 2) the shallowness of American end zones at 10 yards instead of 25 yds/22 meters in Canadian. Both of the larger Canadian dimensions (including a 75 yd wide field instead of 53 1/3 make for more exciting play with the rouge. Also, the idea of conceding a point if a kick goes through the endzone would likely impact American punting quite a bit. I forgot to add that, being a former rugby player, coach, referee, and administrator, the Canadian field is, of course, based upon the rugby pitch. Much more room for action.
I'm not suggesting or advocating for the addition of the rouge in American football. It's more about showing how two closely related games solved the same issue differently. Some early versions of English rugby has the rouge and it became part of the Canadian game but not the American game. It also point out that there would be major opposition to adding the rouge to the American game now, just as there was when we added the two-point conversion in the late 1950s.
You are correct, I believe, in your assessment (which I share) that there would be "major opposition." The one big plus, it seems to me, in introducing some sort of rouge would be to force the receiving team (particularly with the punt, not the kick-off) to--if the ball is received or would "finish" in the end zone--to force the receiver to carry the ball out of the end zone, thus providing some "consolation" to the team that has advanced the ball deeply enough to reach the end zone on a punt. Indeed also, Rugby rules have changed quite a bit since the inception of the game at Rugby School in 1823 when, according to legend, William Webb Ellis, "with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his day, picked up the ball and ran with it." [Thank God!] But in the earliest days and well into more modern times, the "Try" ("touchdown"--which in Rugby still requiredd that the ball be "touuched down") was worth 0 points. It only gave the try-scoring team a "Try" at a "conversion" [a term still being used] into points.