Today's Tidbit... Facing A One-Year Suspension

Some consider today's penalty for targeting - disqualification for the current and next half - to be excessive, but that penalty is mild compared to one recommended in 1906. The 1906 rules committee emphasized removing foul play from the game as part of the effort to make football safer. That emphasis was reflected by the rule of the time called for tossing players from the game for unnecessary roughness, including:

• Striking with the fist or elbows

• Kneeing

• Kicking

• Meeting with the knee

• Striking with the locked hands by line men, when they are breaking through

• Defenders striking the ball carrier's face with the heel of the hand

Striking with the heel of the hand developed in reaction to ball carriers such as Columbia's Harold Weekes hurdling over the line -sometimes feet first. Defenders could not legally punch the runner in the face, but they could legally strike the ball carrier with the heel of the hand until it was also made illegal. Below is an image of Weekes flying over the pile and a subsequent rule book illustration of heeling the face.

(Davis, 1911)