Forward pass In several forms of football a forward pass is a throwing of the ball in the direction that the offensive team is trying to move , towards the defensive team ' s goal line . The forward pass is one of main distinguishers between gridiron football ( American football and Canadian football ) in which the play is legal and widespread , and rugby football ( union and league ) from which the North American games evolved , in which the play is illegal . In some football codes , such as association football ( soccer ) , the kicked forward pass is used so ubiquitously that it is not thought of as a distinct kind of play at all . In these sports , the concept of offside is used to regulate who can be in front of the play or be nearest to the goal . However , this has not always been the case . Some earlier incarnations of football allowed unlimited forward passing , while others had strict offside rules similar to rugby . The development of the forward pass in American football shows how the game has evolved from its rugby roots into the distinctive game it is today . Illegal and experimental forward passes had been attempted as early as 1876 , but the first legal forward pass in American football took place in 1906 , after a change in rules . Another change in rules occurred on January 18 , 1951 , which established that no center , tackle , or guard could receive a forward pass . Today , the only linemen who can receive a forward pass are the ends . Current rules regulate who may throw and who may receive a forward pass , and under what circumstances , as well as how the defensive team may try to prevent a pass from being completed . The primary pass thrower is the quarterback , and statistical analysis is used to determine a quarterback ' s success rate at passing in various situations , as well as a team ' s overall success at the " passing game . " American and Canadian football . In American and Canadian football , a forward pass — usually referred to simply as a pass — consists of one offensive player throwing the football towards another downfield in the direction of the opponent ' s goal line . This is permitted only once during a scrimmage down by the offensive team before team possession has changed , provided the pass is thrown from in or behind the neutral zone . An illegal forward pass incurs a five - yard penalty and the loss of a down , although it may be legally intercepted by the defense and advanced . If an eligible receiver on the passing team legally catches the ball it is a complete pass and the receiver may attempt to advance the ball . If an opposing player legally catches the ball ( all defensive players are eligible receivers ) it is an interception . That player ' s team immediately gains possession of the ball and he may attempt to advance the ball toward his opponent ' s goal . If no player is able to legally catch the ball it is an incomplete pass and the ball becomes dead the moment it touches the ground . It will then be returned to the original line of scrimmage for the next down . If any player interferes with an eligible receiver ' s ability to catch the ball it is pass interference which draws a penalty of varying degree ( largely depending upon the particular league ' s rules ) . The person passing the ball must be a member of the offensive team , and the recipient of the forward pass must be an eligible receiver and must touch the passed ball before any ineligible player . The moment that a forward pass begins is important to the game . The pass begins the moment the passer ' s arm begins to move forward . If the passer drops the ball before this moment it is a fumble and therefore a loose ball . In this case anybody can gain possession of the ball before or after it touches the ground . If the passer drops the ball while his arm is moving forward it is an incomplete pass ( unless someone catches the ball before it hits the ground in which case it is a completed pass or an interception ) . The quarterback generally either starts a few paces behind the line of scrimmage or drops back a few paces as the ball is snapped . This places him in an area called the " pocket " which is a protective region formed by the offensive blockers up front and between the tackles on each side . A quarterback who runs out of this pocket is said to be scrambling . Under NFL and NCAA rules , once the quarterback moves out of the pocket , and there is no good option for a forward pass , the ball may be legally thrown away to prevent a sack . NFHS ( high school ) rules do not allow for a passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass to save loss of yardage or conserve time , except for a spike to conserve time after a hand to hand snap . If he throws the ball away while still in the pocket then a foul called " intentional grounding " is assessed . In Canadian football the passer must simply throw the ball across the line of scrimmage — whether he is inside or outside of the " pocket " — to avoid the foul of " intentionally grounding " . If a forward pass is caught near a sideline or endline it is a complete pass ( or an interception ) only if a receiver catches the ball " in bounds " . For a pass to be ruled in bounds , the receiver ' s feet must be in contact with the in bounds portion of the playing field , or , if the ball is caught in the air , either one or two feet must touch the ground within the field boundaries , after the ball is caught . In the NFL the receiver must touch the ground with both feet , but in most other codes — CFL , NCAA and high school — one foot in bounds is enough . Common to all gridiron codes is the notion of control — a receiver must demonstrate control of the ball in order to be ruled in " possession " of it , while still in bounds , as defined by his code . If the receiver catches the ball but the official determines that he was still " bobbling " it prior to the end of the play , then the pass will be ruled incomplete . History . Early illegal and experimental passes . The forward pass had been attempted at least 30 years before the play was actually made legal . Passes " had been carried out successfully but illegally several times , including the 1876 Yale – Princeton game in which Yale ’ s Walter Camp threw forward to teammate Oliver Thompson as he was being tackled . Princeton ' s protest , one account said , went for naught when the referee ' tossed a coin to make his decision and allowed the touchdown to stand ' " . The University of North Carolina used the forward pass in an 1895 game against the University of Georgia . However , the play was still illegal at the time . Bob Quincy stakes Carolina ' s claim in his 1973 book " They Made the Bell Tower Chime " : John Heisman , namesake of the Heisman Trophy , wrote 30 years later that , indeed , the Tar Heels had given birth to the forward pass against the Bulldogs ( UGA ) . It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and give UNC a 6 – 0 win . The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to block the ball . The punter , with an impromptu dash to his right , tossed the ball and it was caught by George Stephens , who ran 70 yards for a touchdown . In a 1905 experimental game , Washburn University and Fairmount College ( what would become Wichita State ) used the pass before new rules allowing the play were approved in early 1906 . Credit for the first pass goes to Fairmount ' s Bill Davis , who completed a pass to Art Solter . Rules changed in 1906 to allow the forward pass . 1905 had been a bloody year on the gridiron ; the " Chicago Tribune " reported 18 players had been killed and 159 seriously injured that season . There were moves to abolish the game . But President Theodore Roosevelt personally intervened and demanded that the rules of the game be reformed . In a meeting of more than 60 schools in late 1905 , the commitment was made to make the game safer . This meeting was the first step toward the establishment of what would become the NCAA and was followed by several sessions to work out " the new rules . " The final meeting of the Rules Committee tasked with reshaping the game was held on April 6 , 1906 , at which time the forward pass officially became a legal play . " The New York Times " reported in September 1906 on the rationale for the changes : " The main efforts of the football reformers have been to ' open up the game ' — that is to provide for the natural elimination of the so - called mass plays and bring about a game in which speed and real skill shall supersede so far as possible mere brute strength and force of weight . " However the " Times " also reflected widespread skepticism as to whether the forward pass could be effectively integrated into the game : " There has been no team that has proved that the forward pass is anything but a doubtful , dangerous play to be used only in the last extremity . " The forward pass was not allowed in Canadian football until 1929 . First legal pass . Most sources credit St . Louis University ' s Bradbury Robinson from Bellevue , Ohio with throwing the first legal forward pass . On September 5 , 1906 , in a game against Carroll College , Robinson ' s first attempt at a forward pass fell incomplete and resulted in a turnover under the 1906 rules . In the same game , Robinson later completed a 20 - yard touchdown pass to Jack Schneider . The 1906 St . Louis University team was coached by Eddie Cochems . Football authority and College Football Hall of Fame coach David M . Nelson wrote that " E . B . Cochems is to forward passing what the Wright brothers are to aviation and Thomas Edison is to the electric light . " While St . Louis University completed the first legal forward pass in the first half of September , this accomplishment was in part because most schools did not begin their football schedule until early October . In 1952 , football coaching legend Amos Alonzo Stagg discounted accounts crediting any particular coach with being the innovator of the forward pass . Stagg noted that he had Walter Eckersall working on pass plays and saw Pomeroy Sinnock of Illinois throw many passes in 1906 . Stagg summed up his view as follows : " I have seen statements giving credit to certain people originating the forward pass . The fact is that all coaches were working on it . The first season , 1906 , I personally had sixty - four different forward pass patterns . " In 1954 , Stagg disputed Cochems ' claim to have invented the forward pass : " Eddie Cochems , who coached at St . Louis University in 1906 , also claimed to have invented the pass as we know it today . . . It isn ' t so , because after the forward pass was legalized in 1906 , most of the schools commenced experimenting with it and nearly all used . " Stagg asserted that , as far back as 1894 , before the rules committee even considered the forward pass , one of his players used to throw the ball " like a baseball pitcher . " On the other hand , Hall of Fame coach Gus Dorais told the United Press that " Eddie Cochems of the St . Louis University team of 1906 – 07 – 08 deserves the full credit . " Writing in " Collier ' s " more than 20 years earlier , Dorais ' Notre Dame teammate Knute Rockne acknowledged Cochems as the early leader in the use of the pass , observing , " One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue . The East , however , had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and Western football . Indeed , the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghanies . . . " In his history of the game , historian David Nelson concluded that the first forward passes were thrown on Christmas Day 1905 in a match between two small colleges in Kansas : " Although Cochems was the premier passing coach during the first year of the rule , the first forward passes were thrown at the end of the 1905 season in a game between Fairmount and Washburn colleges in Kansas . " According to Nelson , Washburn completed three passes , and Fairmount completed two . Once the 1906 season got underway , many programs began experimenting with the forward pass . On September 26 , 1906 , Villanova ' s game against the Carlisle Indians was billed as " the first real game of football under the new rules . " In the first play from scrimmage after the opening kicks , Villanova completed a pass that " succeeded in gaining ten yards . " Following the Villanova - Carlisle game , " The New York Times " described the new passing game this way : " The passing was more of the character of that familiar in basket ball than that which has hitherto characterized football . Apparently it is the intention of football coaches to try repeatedly these frequent long and risky passes . Well executed they are undoubtedly highly spectacular , but the risk of dropping the ball is so great as to make the practice extremely hazardous and its desirability doubtful . " Another coach sometimes credited with popularizing the overhead spiral pass in 1906 is former Princeton All - American " Bosey " Reiter . Reiter claimed to have invented the overhead spiral pass while playing professional football as a player - coach for Connie Mack ' s Philadelphia Athletics of the original National Football League ( 1902 ) . While playing for the Athletics , Reiter was a teammate of Hawley Pierce , a former star for the Carlisle Indian School . Pierce , a Native American , taught Reiter to throw an underhand spiral pass , but Reiter had short arms and was unable to throw for distance from an underhand delivery . Accordingly , Reiter began working on an overhand spiral pass . Reiter recalled trying to imitate the motion of a baseball catcher throwing to second base . After practice and experimentation , Reiter " discovered he could get greater distance and accuracy throwing that way . " In 1906 , Reiter was the head coach at Wesleyan University . In the opening game of the 1906 season against Yale , Reiter ' s quarterback Sammy Moore completed a forward pass to Irvin van Tassell for a thirty - yard gain . " The New York Times " called it " the prettiest play of the day , " as Wesleyan ' s quarterback " deftly passed the ball past the whole Yale team to his mate Van Tassel . " Van Tassel later described the historic play to the United Press : " I was the right halfback , and on this formation played one yard back of our right tackle . The quarterback , Sam Moore , took the ball from center and faded eight or 10 yards back of our line . Our two ends angled down the field toward the sidelines as a decoy , and I slipped through the strong side of our line straight down the center and past the secondary defense . The pass worked perfectly . However , the quarterback coming up fast nailed me as I caught it . This brought the ball well into Yale territory , about the 20 - yard line . " The football season opened for most schools during the first week of October , and the impact of the forward pass was immediate : Some publications credit Yale All - American Paul Veeder with the " first forward pass in a major game . " Veeder threw a 20 to 30 - yard completion in leading Yale past Harvard 6 – 0 before 32 , 000 fans in New Haven on November 24 , 1906 . However , that Yale / Harvard game was played three weeks after St . Louis completed 45 and 48 - yard passes against Kansas before a crowd of 7 , 000 at Sportsman ' s Park . First passing offense . The forward pass was a central feature of Cochems ' offensive scheme in 1906 as his St . Louis University team compiled an undefeated 11 – 0 season in which they outscored opponents by a combined score 407 to 11 . The highlight of the campaign was St . Louis ' 31 – 0 win over Iowa . Cochems ' team reportedly completed eight passes in ten attempts for four touchdowns . " The average flight distance of the passes was twenty yards . " Nelson continues , " the last play demonstrated the dramatic effect that the forward pass was having on football . St . Louis was on Iowa ' s thirty - five - yard line with a few seconds to play . Timekeeper Walter McCormack walked onto the field to end the game when the ball was thrown twenty - five yards and caught on the dead run for a touchdown . " The 1906 Iowa game was refereed by one of the top football officials in the country , West Point ' s Lt . Horatio B . " Stuffy " Hackett . He had officiated games involving the top Eastern powers that year . Hackett , who would become a member of the football rules committee in December 1907 and officiated games into the 1930s , was quoted the next day in Ed Wray ' s " Post - Dispatch " article : " It was the most perfect exhibition . . . of the new rules . . . that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard . St . Louis ' style of pass differs entirely from that in use in the east . . . . The St . Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it . . . The fast throw by St . Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players , and it struck me as being all but perfect . " " Cochems said that the poor Iowa showing resulted from its use of the old style play and its failure to effectively use the forward pass " , Nelson writes . " Iowa did attempt two basketball - style forward passes . " " During the 1906 season [ Robinson ] threw a sixty - seven yard pass . . . and . . . Schneider tossed a sixty - five yarder . Considering the size , shape and weight of the ball , these were extraordinary passes . " In 1907 , after the first season of the forward pass , one football writer noted that , " with the single exception of Cochems , football teachers were groping in the dark . " Because St . Louis was geographically isolated from both the dominating teams and the major sports media ( newspapers ) of the era . . . all centered in and focused on the East . . . Cochems ' groundbreaking offensive strategy was not picked up by the major teams . Pass - oriented offenses would not be adopted by the Eastern football powers until the next decade . But that does not mean that other teams in the Midwest did not pick it up . Arthur Schabinger , quarterback for the College of Emporia in Kansas , was reported to have regularly used the forward pass in 1910 . Coach H . W . " Bill " Hargiss ' " Presbies " are said to have featured the play in a 17 – 0 victory over Washburn University and in a 107 – 0 destruction of Pittsburg State University . Adoption by Notre Dame expands popularity . Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais worked on the pass while lifeguarding on a Lake Erie beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky , Ohio , during the summer of 1913 . That year , Jesse Harper , Notre Dame head coach , also showed how the pass could be used by a smaller team to beat a bigger one , first utilizing it to defeat rival Army . After it was used against a major school on a national stage in this game , the forward pass rapidly gained popularity . First pass in a professional game . The first forward pass in a professional football game may have been thrown in an Ohio League game played on October 25 , 1906 . The Ohio League , which traced its history to the 1890s , was the predecessor of today ' s NFL . According to Robert W . Peterson in his book " Pigskin The Early Years of Pro Football " , the " passer was George W . ( Peggy ) Parratt , probably the best quarterback of the era " , who played for the Massillon , Ohio Tigers , one of pro football ' s first franchises . Citing the Professional Football Researchers Association as his source , Peterson writes that " Parratt completed a short pass to end Dan Riley ( real name , Dan Policowski ) " in a game played at Massillon against a team from West Virginia . Since the Tigers " ran up a 61 to 0 score on the hapless Mountain Staters , the pass played no important part in the result . " According to National Football League history , it legalized the forward pass from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage on February 25 , 1933 . Before that rule change , a forward pass had to be made from 5 or more yards behind the line of scrimmage . Forward passes were first permitted in Canadian football in 1929 , but the tactic remained a minor part of the game for several years . Jack Jacobs of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is recognized , not for inventing the forward pass , but for popularizing it in the Western Interprovincial Football Union , thus changing the Canadian game from a more run - dominated game to the passing game as seen today . Change in ball shape . Specification of the size of the ball for the American game came in 1912 , but it was still essentially a rugby ball . Increased use of the forward pass encouraged adoption of a narrower ball , starting with changes in the 1920s which enhanced rifled throwing and also spiral punting . This had the consequence of all but eliminating the drop kick from the American game . Rugby football . In the two codes of rugby ( union and league ) a forward pass is against the rules . It results in a scrum to the opposing team . The team in possession must get behind the ball carrier or be ruled offside . Offside players will not be penalised as long as they remain inactive but if the ball is thrown to them then they become active and thus a scrum or penalty is awarded to the opposition . To minimize the chances of this happening and to support the ball carrier , teammates try to stay behind the player with the ball . According to the rules stipulated by the governing body of rugby league in Australia a forward pass is relative to the player making the pass and not the actual path relative to the ground . A forward pass occurs when the player passes the ball forward in relation to himself . This is rarely a deliberate offence and is often caused by misjudgement . A forward pass is generally restarted with a scrum after an accidental infringement , however a penalty may be awarded if the referee is of the belief that the ball was deliberately thrown forward . In rugby league the video referee may not make judgements on whether a pass is forward . In Rugby Union the law is effectively the same : a " throw forward " occurs when the ball is thrown forward i . e . towards the dead - ball line . The term " throw " is used to emphasise that it is at the point of release that the pass is adjudged forward or not . As with the rugby league rule above , what occurs in the later flight of the ball is not in question - the momentum of the passing player , a bounce , or a gust of wind can cause the ball to travel forward relative to the ground but this in no way constitutes an infringement . In the terms of the RFU ' s original 1949 " Case Law " ruling , published in Percy Royds ' History of the Laws of Rugby Union : " a throw - forward is not decided on relation to the ground , but on the direction of the propulsion of the ball by the hand or arm of the player passing the ball " .