Today's Tidbit... Bootleg Footballs and Changing Specifications

We are all familiar with "bootlegs" in football, which entered the game with Pop Warner's 1927 Stanford team when they ran what appeared to be a Statue of Liberty play to the left. Instead, the double-wing fullback faked the give, concealed the ball on his hip, and ran around the right end for a touchdown.

The late 1920s and early 1930 also saw the term 'bootleg' applied to footballs manufactured at variance from the NCAA's specifications during a time when several aspects of the ball changed. Th...