Today's Tidbit... Referees Awarding Points

Today, when the offense commits a foul while behind its goal line, the defense earns a safety if the enforcement of the penalty would leave the ball on or behind the goal line. That approach became part of football's 1900 rules after a controversy arose in a Philadelphia-area high school game in 1899.

Committing a penalty behind the goal line is one of several situations today in which officials effectively award points to one team or the other, but there was another circumstance in the past that...