In whatever sport(s) you follow, are there any long-defunct rules that you miss?
I miss 3-to-make-2 and 2-to-make-1 in pro basketball. As young people may not be aware, there was a time, long ago, in the NBA when being in the bonus meant being in the bonus. If you were fouled in the bonus while shooting, you got three chances to make a maximum of two foul shouts.
If you were fouled while shooting and made the shot, you got two chances to make one.
It was kind of funny to see a pro athlete walk to the foul line and get a mulligan. But it was kind of cool at the same time.
In pro football, I miss when a fourth-down incomplete pass in the end zone was a touchback. It put a premium on running in fourth-down goal line situations, except at the very end of the game.
Rugby union would be improved a million billion times if they brought back rucking, and forced cheaters to get stamped all over if they’re insistent on cheating and slowing down the game.
In golf it’s only fairly recently that the concept came about of marking and removing your ball if it’s in your opponent’s way on the green. Before that, if your ball was in the way of your opponent’s ball it was referred to as a “stymie”, and he just had to play his ball the way his ball (and yours) was. Golfers used to chip their ball over the opponent’s ball in an effort to get in the hole.
I thought 3-to-make-2 was an ABA rule. Speaking of that, I miss the rule that basketballs had to be painted red, white, and blue. And the rule that all players had to have an Afro at least 24 inches wide, including the white guys. And wear shorts that extend a maximum of 1 inch below the nuts.
I remember 3 to make 2 in the NBA but I thought it was for a backcourt foul.
I really miss the bonus being a real bonus i.e. you have to make the first shot to get a second shot.
I miss “jump ball” calls in basketball resulting in a real, honest-to-goodness jump ball. The change to the possession arrow happened in our state between 8th and 9th grade basketball for us, and it did take a lot of fun out of the game. It was hilarious to watch a scrawny point guard face off against the other team’s center…and sometimes the scrawny point guard would still win the jump ball.
According to wiki, the Stymie rule was abolished in 1952, almost 59 yrs ago.
I actually think the 3 to make 2 should be implemented in College Basketball. 7 common fouls puts the other team into the “1 and 1”, 10 common fouls into two shots and 13 common fouls into the 3 to make 2.
I think it might be a deterrent to the endless fouling in the last two minutes.
One rule that I miss in basketball is “traveling” and “3 second rule.” But that is probably a topic for another thread.
That must go way back, because I don’t remember it, and I’ve been watching Pro Football religiously since the early 70’s. I’m not sure how I’d feel about that rule, but it would be interesting from a strategy standpoint - does the defense completely sell out to stop the run there knowing that it’s less likely that the offense would want to run a pass? Does the offense take the field position risk and run play action?
I guess this is a defunct rule because it’s from a defunct league, but I liked the “no fair catch” rule that the XFL had. Either catch it and return it, or let it bounce and take your chances.
I miss tackling in football. Suh got a 15,000 dollar fine for tackling a running QB. They may as well have QBs sit in a cage . You can not tackle low or high. You can not touch shoulder pads. May as well play flag football.
I wish wandering goalies were fair game in hockey again. In the old days if a goalie wandered ,everybody watched to see who would cream him.
I wonder how the NFL would have turned out if they had kept the posts on the goal line and kept it so that a missed field goal would have been subject to the same rules as a punt is (i.e. no return to the spot of the kick on a miss). Perhaps narrow the posts by a few feet in the bargain (since field goal %'s have skyrocketed since then). You’d end up with more field goals (+ attempts), but also more long runbacks of missed ones, as the huge blockers on the field goal team haplessly chase around the speedy returner after he catches the lower trajectory kick. Coaches would have to balance the shot at the 3 points vs. the chance of keeping the other team pinned inside their 20. But the safety issue probably trumps all that.
That’s another defunct rule–that a backcourt foul was an automatic two-shot foul. Then, if you were in the bonus, it got raised to 3-to-make-2.
The 3-to-make-2, however, applied on any foul that would otherwise be a 2-shot foul; be it (at that time) a backcourt foul or a foul while shooting.
And of course, if you missed all three shots, you had the hat trick–a term which disappeared for a few years when 3-to-make-2 was abolished, then returned with the advent of the 3-shot foul for fouling on a 3-point attempt.
In college, team fouls 7, 8, and 9 in a half result in a one-and-one, where you have to make the first free throw to get a second. 10 team fouls and above you get to shoot two no matter what.
According to the Wikipedia entry on field goals, the goal posts were at the goal line at all levels of play, but the NCAA moved them to the end line in 1927 (the NFL followed suit, because the league used NCAA rules at that time). However, the NFL moved the posts back to the goal line in 1932, where they stayed until 1974.
ISTR that the reasoning for moving the posts to the goal line was to increase scoring by making field goals easier. However, since the 1970s, the league has made several moves to make kicking more difficult (moving the goal posts, moving the kickoff line twice, and the adoption of the “K balls”). Even so, NFL kickers are far more accurate than they were 30 or 40 years ago.
I remember when college BB put in the shot clock people said they would be like the NBA with many high scoring games. That was proven wrong. I’ve seen a 39-38 game with the shot clock.
I don’t have strong opinions about this, but I kind of miss the old volleyball scoring rules where you could only score a point if your team is the one that served. Otherwise you simply got the sideout when a play went in your favor. Now you can score a point regardless of who served. It seemed like a pretty radical rule change to me.
