Today's Tidbit.. Football's Longest Half-The-Distance Penalty

(Saturday Evening Post, December 5, 1959, Constantin Alajalov, Illustrator)

Football instituted its first half-the-distance penalty in 1889 for intentionally tackling below the knees, butting, tripping, and throttling (choking). Teams guilty of those offenses were penalized 25 yards. However, if the 25-yard penalty would take the ball over the goal line, the penalty was limited to half the distance.

The specifics changed occasionally, but the unsportsmanlike penalties had safety implications, so they were later deemed worthy of disqualifying the player from the game and penalizing his team half the distance.