Football trivia question

[KurtBevacqua]

I'm currently reading a book that gave me a surprising tidbit of football trivia that, unless you read the book, you may have trouble answering.

Way back in the early days of the NFL there was a rule that a forward pass had to be thrown from at least 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Also, an incomplete pass in the endzone was treated as an interception. Redskins owner George Marshall proposed changes to those rules and the rest is history.

OK, those rule changes were inspired by the play of one man in an NFL championship game. In fact, the rule change to be able to throw the ball from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage was even named after this guy for several years. He's in the Hall of Fame, he threw a touchdown pass on the play that inspired the rule change, and also threw touchdown passes in more than one NFL title game. Who is this all-time great that inspired revolutionary changes to the pro football passing game that led to the game we all enjoy today?

[dodgersfanatic]

Bart Starr?

[SWardle]

Bronko Nagurski.

[KurtBevacqua]

Originally Posted by SWardle

Bronko Nagurski.

We have a winner. And the play in question was pretty much the same play Tim Tebow threw his TD pass on against LSU yesterday.

Here's the setup. 1932 NFL Championship, which at the time was called the most famous football game ever played. Chicago had been hit by 3 blizzards in 10 days, and because the stands at Wrigley were under 10 feet of snow Hallas asked the league permission to move the game indoors to Chicago Stadium. Several rules were modified to allow the game to be played on the small field. The Bears were hosting the Portsmouth Spartans, who would later become the Detroit Lions.

Late in the 3rd quarter of a scoreless tie, Chicago faced a 3rd and goal at the Portsmouth 2. Nagurski took the handoff and was supposed to run a dive play. Instead he stepped up to the line, stopped, took two steps back, and threw a jump pass to a wide open Red Grange in the endzone. Spartans' coach Potsy Clark was furious with the refs because Nagurski did not go back the required 5 yards behind the line to throw a forward pass. Faced with a potential mob pouring out of the stands onto the field, the refs decided to allow the play to stand despite it's obvious illegality. The Bears held on to win 9-0. In the offseason, based on Bronko's pass, Boston Redskins owner George Marshall proposed changing the rule, among several others, to make the game more exciting. With George Halas' surprise backing (he and Marshall weren't exactly friends) they managed to push through many of the rules that make pro football the game we know and love today. The rule on passing behind the line of scrimmage would be called Bronko's rule.

Ironically, Nagurski, better known as perhaps the games greatest fullback and defensive player would also use the same play to throw another touchdown pass in the 1933 title game.

Another interesting tidbit on Nagurski. He had an almost ludicrously good season as a senior in college. In an 8 game season he led college in rushing with over 730 yards, and also made 155 tackles and 6 interceptions in an era when nobody threw the ball. Back then the All American team only had 11 positions on it. In 1929 the team had just 10 players named to it. Nagurski was named to the first team twice in the same season for two different positions.

It was thought (probably correctly) that during his career, Nagurski could play any position on the field, and would have been the best player in the game at it. Indeed on defense Nagurski probably did play every position on the field with some regularity. And on offense he even played tackle during his comeback in 1943, coming back six years after his initial retirement. In his day, Nagurski was as big as Jim Brown on offense and Dick Butkus on defense, at the same time.

And I highly recommend reading Jim Dent's Monster of the Midway.

[SWardle]

You know how I knew that? John Madden. He was rambling on one game about how the passing game had evolved and invoked the name of Bronko Nagurski. One of the few times I actually paid attention to something John Madden said.