NFL goal posts location

[oldecapecod11]

ARCHIVE

NFL goal posts location
Started by smith03, Jul 16 2014 11:28 AM

10 replies to this topic

#1 smith03
Forum Visitors
Posted 16 July 2014 - 11:28 AM
I know that in 1933 the NFL moved the goal posts to the goal line from the end line and than in 1974 they were put on the end line, but I have read in some books that in 1927? the goal posts were moved to the end line so my question is this had the goal posts been placed on the end line from 1920-32 or had it been goal line 1920-26 end line 1927-32.

#2 LJP
Forum Visitors
Posted 16 July 2014 - 11:38 AM
The posts were definitely on the goal line in 1924, so there had to be a switch to the end line some time before 1932.

Frankford kicked an 11-yard FG in 1927 against Dayton, which would not really be possible if the posts were on the end line.

There don't appear to be any such short FGs in 1928 onwards (although the distance was not always recorded), so the posts probably moved to the end line in 1928 and then to the goal line in 1933.

#3 smith03
Forum Visitors
Posted 16 July 2014 - 01:54 PM
thanks just to help me keep it straight

1920-2? goal line
192?-32 end line
1933-73 goal line
1974- end line

#4 LJP
Forum Visitors
Posted 16 July 2014 - 02:55 PM
I would think it is the following: -

1920-27 goal line
1928-32 end line
1933-73 goal line
1974-date end line

The posts did move to the goal line in 1932 for the Bears Spartans game in Chicago Stadium, but league wide the change would have been in 1933.

#5 anome8
PFRA Member-58 posts
Posted 16 July 2014 - 05:34 PM
According to Neft/Cohen the goal posts were moved to the end line for the start of the 1927 season. They also said the league instituted a rule that year that a team intending to punt with the line of scrimmage inside its own 5 could request the ball be moved out 10 yards with the 10 yard difference to be restored after the end of the return. That's one I don't see mentioned much.

#6 Jeffrey Miller
PFRA Member-756 posts
1920s NFL
1960s AFL
Posted 16 July 2014 - 05:55 PM
Definitely at the back of the end zone in 1929. If you take a look at the Chicago Cardinal video from 1929 posted on youtube, about three quarters of the way through one can clearly see the posts on the end line during a field goal attempt.,

#7 LJP
Forum Visitors
Posted 16 July 2014 - 06:52 PM
In the box scores it mentions Frankford's 11-yard FG in 1927 from the 11-yard line, but the following week Dayton kicked a 40-yard FG from the 30-yard line.

Maybe the switch was in 1927 then and the Frankford kick should be 21-yards? unless not all of the teams had switched?

#8 smith03
Forum Visitors
Posted 16 July 2014 - 07:18 PM
maybe the different score keepers interpreted the distances differently one factor in end zone one did not. notice the 11 yard did not include the 7 yards or so of where the ball would have been kicked from

#9 luckyshow
Forum Visitors
Posted 16 July 2014 - 08:08 PM
I have seen punts measured from point of kick. Not maybe NFL reports. The women's leagues have different ways of noting distance (when they even mention distance or a kicker's name). Sometimes it makes no sense.

Such as a 13 yard field goal in 2011 in the WFA, or a 14 yard field goal in the IWFL in 2008. There are a handful of 15 yard field goals as well. Also on my list but perhaps occurs more often, a 16 yard FG in the Central Valley Football League, a men's Spring league which I don't think is indoors. I have a 17 yard field goal in an indoor football league, the Continental Indoor Football League, but I have no idea how these are done in such indoor games...

In 1927, the NCAA moved the goal posts to the end line. I doubt the NFL had them on the end line before this. It was a 6 year interlude for the NFL. I have never seen any field showing dual goal posts, as some of these fields would have a college game on Saturday and an NFL game on Sunday. I guess ground crews could have been moving them back and forth...

#10 rhickok1109
Pro Bowler
PFRA Member-1,282 posts
Posted 17 July 2014 - 06:58 AM
luckyshow, on 16 Jul 2014 - 8:08 PM, said:
I have seen punts measured from point of kick. Not maybe NFL reports. The women's leagues have different ways of noting distance (when they even mention distance or a kicker's name). Sometimes it makes no sense.

Such as a 13 yard field goal in 2011 in the WFA, or a 14 yard field goal in the IWFL in 2008. There are a handful of 15 yard field goals as well. Also on my list but perhaps occurs more often, a 16 yard FG in the Central Valley Football League, a men's Spring league which I don't think is indoors. I have a 17 yard field goal in an indoor football league, the Continental Indoor Football League, but I have no idea how these are done in such indoor games...

In 1927, the NCAA moved the goal posts to the end line. I doubt the NFL had them on the end line before this. It was a 6 year interlude for the NFL. I have never seen any field showing dual goal posts, as some of these fields would have a college game on Saturday and an NFL game on Sunday. I guess ground crews could have been moving them back and forth...
The NFL used the NCAA rulebook until 1933.

#11 smith03
Forum Visitors
Posted 17 July 2014 - 11:21 AM
I understand the nfl used the college rulebooks until 1933, but were there every exceptions to that prior to 33? for example I am under the impression that college used a 4 man official crew, yet the NFL did use a head linesman until 1929.

[rhickok1109]

Johnny Blood, Ole Haugsrud, and Ernie Nevers all (but separately) told me a story about a 1926 Duluth Eskimos' game in Providence in which there were four officials. In those days, the home team paid the officials and I doubt that any team would have paid for more officials than required by the rules.