Today's Tidbit... 1876 IFA Rule #43: Fair Catch Free Kick
Today's Tidbit... 1876 IFA Rule #43: Fair Catch Free Kick
This is #43 in a series covering football's original 61 rules adopted by the Intercollegiate Football Association in 1876. We review one rule each Friday.
The situations in which the fair catch could occur were defined by Rule 28, and Rule 29 told us how the fair catch applied during a puntout, but we've had to wait for Rule 43 to learn the three options available to teams following a fair catch.
Rule 43: A player who has made and claimed a fair catch shall therefore either take a drop kick or a punt or place the ball for a place kick.
Rule 44 provides the procedure used in executing the free kick, but that will be covered next week, so today's cover the situations teams used the three options, each of which was a free kick, meaning the defense could not approach the kicker until he began his motion.
In today's game, punting or kicking the ball after a fair catch is rare since teams generally choose to run a play from scrimmage, but that option was not available in 1876 since the rule of possession and the scrimmage did not yet exist. Instead, the first option following a fair catch was to punt the ball downfield to improve your field position. Punts provided the chance to recover the ball or to tackle an opposing team player after they recovered the ball.
Drop and place kicking were the options, and that choice generally depended on the distance from the goal and the relative quality of your best dropkicker and placekicker. Field conditions also came into play since the ball did not reliably bounce off the ground on a muddy field.
On the other hand, placekickers did not use tees or have teammates hold the ball at the time. Instead, Rule 3 indicated the kicker could place the ball in a nick in the ground. Kicker made the nick with the heel of their foot, much like the fair catcher made a nick immediately following the catch.
Ultimately, the fair catch and resulting free kick made sense in the kicking-oriented game of 1876. It has made less sense since football transitioned to a rushing and passing-oriented game. While the fair catch provides a safety measure for the return man, it results in a boring play. Canadian football, on the other hand, does not have a fair catch. They return every kick and punt in the field of play, and the coverage team is restrained from approaching within 5 yards of the returner until he makes the catch. That keeps the returner from getting blasted immediately after completing the catch while allowing him to initiate the return, leading to more exciting plays.
Click the appropriate link for previous stories in the series:
Intro | #1 Drop Kick | #2 Place Kick | #3 Punt | #4 Goal Posts | #5 Goal | #6 Goal ≠ Punt | #7 Scoring | #8 Dead Ball | #9 Touchdown | #10 Tackle | #11 Scrimmage | #12 Ball Handling | #13 Dead Ball | #14 Scrimmage Ball Handling | #15 Run In | #16 Goal Line | #17 Boundary Lines | #18 Crying “Down” | #19 Maul In | #20 Maul in Pax | #21 Touch-in Goal | #22 Onside | #23 Offside | #24 Return to Onside | #25 Defensive Offside | #26 Throwing Back | #27 Knocking On | #28 Fair Catch | #29 Punt-out | #30 Punt-On | #31 Into Touch | #32 Inbounding | #33 Pushed Into Touch | #34 Right Angle Throw Out | #35 No Fair Catch | #36 Kickoff | #37 Kickoff Timing | #38 Change Goals | #39 Toss Up | #40 Loser Kicks | #41 Kickout | #42 Kickout Procedure
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