American Football: A Kicker's Game

POD: In OTL, John Heisman was watching a Football match when he saw the players attempt a forward pass, despite it being against the rules at the time. The referee missed the foul, and the play went well. Heisman was always struck by it, and began a bit of a fascination with the idea of a forward play.

In the ATL, Heisman sneezes and missed the play, much as the refs did at the time.

Come the turn of the century, and there is still the continued pressure by some to ban Football, or, at least, make it a safer and more open game (in OTL, Football during this period was a game of the line, and there were few, if any, ways to open the field. As in OTL, President Roosevelt, a fan, albeit not a player, becomes involved and 'encourages' the main powers in College football to smooth the game out somewhat.

Instead of a forward pass, however, the commision takes some inspiration from Rubgy and Austrial Football and decides for a forward kick. The kick can only be performed by the quarterback and can only be done on the bounce (i.e. the Quarterback throws the ball down and, on the bounce, kicks it past the defensive line towards his receivers.)

Naturally, if the opponents catch the ball, it still counts as an interception. However, the play gives the offence a chance to really make up yardage (as per OTL, the commission adopts a fourth down, prior to the third, which had been stanard up to that time). It still remains less precise than the OTL pass. Perhaps this inspires the commission to not pass as many restrictions against the forward kick as they did against the pass in OTL (originally you could not score a touchdown on a pass, for instrance.)

How does this change the game?
 
This could be VERY interesting

Gridiron football a lot like Aussie football, the stars of the game might change dramatically
 
Gridiron football a lot like Aussie football, the stars of the game might change dramatically

That was some of my thoughts as well. I could see a situation where the position of Quarterback and Kicker end up merging over time. The quarterback, from my readings, had already taken on the on-field leadership qualities that the position holds today, so that wouldn't change. But giving them the dropkick option instead of the pass will change the position.

Also, I could see the new dropkick being adopted quicker, and with less reluctance than the pass, as it will seem like less of a break from tradition.

Finally, the football will stay closer to the shape of a rugby ball; tge modern shape was adopted to make it more areodynamic for the pass.
 
I like the idea since I am not a big fan of the forward pass anyway.

Questions regarding the drop kick as a way to advance the ball. What would happen with a kick that was not caught (either by the intended receiver or a defender)? Would it be treated as a free ball, recoverable by either side? Or equivalent to an incomplete pass - a dead ball that stops play and returns to the line of scrimmage? I think the best would be for it to be a free ball - something I wish applied to the forward pass in OTL football.

Why would you limit this only to the QB? Why couldn't the QB pitch or hand the ball back to another player to kick it, in the same way he can pich it to another player to throw a forward pass?

I do think this would change (and in my opinion improve) the QB position. It would favor running QBs, since I imagine many drop kicks would be executed in lateral runs rather than from a pocket
 
There would have to be different rules regarding kicks. For example, if a drop kick could be used to advance the ball like a forward pass, would this rule only apply in the first 3 downs, with the fourth down kick being the same as a punt? Or, if drop kicks were a live ball, would punts no longer exist as such since a team could effectively do the same thing by kicking to nobody in particular on fourth down? Would this eliminate the field goal kick as a means of scoring in US football, or would the place kick still evolve for that purpose (something I'd not like to see, since watching a place kick is one of the most boring things in US football).
 
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