Today's Tidbit... 1876 IFA Rule #50: Heel-In Mark

This is #50 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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As you likely have noticed, some of the original IFA rules suffer from an exceedingly convoluted writing style that goes beyond differences in word usage and phrasing across 150+ years. Rule 50 counts among the worst offenders in that regard. It takes several readings to understand the rule's intent, and remains unclear even then.

The funny thing about Rule 50 is that it is unchanged from the Rugby Union rules. That means that upper-class Brits wrote it and were supposed to be familiar with the King's English, but it reads like more than a few skipped their classes that day.

Rule 50: If a fair catch be made from a punt-out or punt-on, the catcher may proceed either as provided by Rules 43 or 44, or he himself take a punt-on, in which case the mark made in making the fair catch shall be regarded (for the purpose of determining as well the position of the player who makes the punt-on as of the other players of both sides) as the mark made on the goal-line in the case of a punt-out.