Today’s Tidbit… 1876 IFA Rule #21: Touch-in Goal

This is #21 in a series covering football’s original 61 rules adopted by the Intercollegiate Football Association in 1876. We review one rule each Friday.

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“Touch-in goal” constitutes the four areas on football fields behind the goal line and beyond the sideline. They remain a part of rugby fields today but stopped having meaning for American football fields when the rule makers eliminated the puntout in 1920. 

Rule 21 tells us what happens when the ball goes into touch in goal:

Rule 21: Touch-in-goal. Immediately the ball, whether in the hands of a player (except for the purpose of a punt-out – see Rule 29) or not, goes into touch in goal, it is at once dead and out of the game, and must be brought out by Rules 41 and 42.

So, the rule tells us the ball is dead when in a player's hands while in touch-in goal, except when the player is executing a puntout, which is covered briefly below.