In September, a birthday passed with little acclaim: the most monumental invention in football, the forward pass. 

It seems strange now to think that football didn’t always have the pass.  But nothing exists in a vacuum.  Football evolved from Rugby, where the forward pass is illegal, so in the start, it was only natural to not allow passing.

To trace the pass, you have to go back over a hundred years ago.  There is no “real” professional football.  Passing has only been used illegally, accidentally, and/or experimentally.  The game is popular in high schools and colleges and it is extraordinarily violent.  Violent as in people were dying violent.  There was some movement to try and ban the sport. Read the full story