Sports Asked by Maniac on December 11, 2020
Can anyone tell me why the NFL uses the current scoring format of 6 points plus extra point for a touchdown, 3 points for a field goal, 2 points for a safety?
Is there a history or story behind why they picked this format? Was a different format ever used?
Why was this format chosen over a 5-2-1 format for example?
I don’t know if this question has a good answer or not, but I couldn’t find anything definitive on this in my research. Does anyone else know something I don’t?
Based on The Anatomy of a Game.
The current scoring rules weren't decided on all at once. They evolved over the years.
At the outset, football was played according to whatever rules the two teams agreed to. The first rules meeting was in 1876. Before this, there was no standard ruleset for the sport of football.
Initially, it was the students at Rutgers, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard who created rules that varied from a strictly kicking game to a game that allowed running the ball.
The first ruleset, created in Princeton in 1871, included these rules related to scoring:
Harvard drafted their own ruleset in 1872, based off of the Princeton/Rutgers rules. Theirs was closer to rugby, due to their Canadian connection with McGill University. Theirs allowed running and throwing:
Yale created a ruleset very similar to Princeton's, prohibiting picking up, throwing, or carrying the ball.
In 1873, Princeton, Rutgers, and Yale met to organize a standard ruleset. The outcome was a set of 12 rules. Out of those, these related to scoring:
In 1876, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and Harvard met to further unify the rulesets (Harvard had not attended the previous meeting due to their commitment to a running/Rugby style of game). The outcome was 61 rules. Here is how they related to scoring:
In 1881, the safety was officially included in the rules, and counted against the team, but only in a tie-break situation:
In 1882, safeties became part of the scoring, and the tie-break advantage switched from kicks to touchdowns:
This was all part of an overall strategy to increase the pace of the game and eliminate stalling that occurred under the previous rules. Downs were also added at this time.
In early 1883, scores were first attached to the various ways of scoring:
Later in 1883, scores were further amended:
In 1887, scores became:
In 1904 and 1909, the goal from the field was reduced to 4, and then 3 points.
In 1912, touchdowns became worth 6 points.
That is the history. It was never a decision involving the current scoring system versus something dramatically different. They were all incremental changes, being made to encourage certain types of play.
Correct answer by user647 on December 11, 2020
The evolution of the scoring system in American Football is described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_american_football and other nearby articles.
The game evolved from Rugby Union, and at the time, the scoring just counted goals (similar to association football where this system is obviously still in place despite the rules of Rugby being officially 19-years older than soccer's (The Football Association) rules). Reaching the end zone merely gave you a chance to kick at the goal. Over time, both American football and rugby tweaked the scoring system to put more emphasis on reaching the end zone versus the kicking game.
The reason they arrived at these particular numbers was obviously just a long series of tweaking until the administrators arrived at a balance that they liked. For the same reason, numerous other rules are tweaked every year.
Answered by Peter Eisentraut on December 11, 2020
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