When Did The NFL Move The Goalposts?

A look at how and when the NFL made changes to the goalpost dimensions, and how those changes have affected the game.

The Early Days of the NFL

The NFL was founded in 1920, and the first few years were a bit of a free-for-all when it came to the rules of the game. In fact, it wasn’t until 1933 that the first official set of NFL rules was written down. One of the key rules that was established early on was the width of the playing field.

The first ever NFL game

The first ever NFL game took place on November 22, 1920, between the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals. The game was played at Wrigley Field in Chicago and ended in a scoreless tie.

Interestingly, the goalposts were located at the front of each end zone in that game, rather than at the back as they are today. This meant that if a team scored a touchdown, they would then have to kick off from their own end zone.

The goalposts were moved to the back of the end zone in 1927, and they have remained there ever since.

How the NFL was founded

The National Football League (NFL) was founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) with ten teams from four states, all of whom existed in some form as participants of regional leagues in their respective territories. The first official game was played on October 3, 1920, between the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell, before a crowd of around 10,000 spectators at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

The league’s membership increased to 22 teams by the end of its inaugural season, and then to 33 teams by 1921. This growth was due in part to the addition of several successful professional football teams that had been established in Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania during the 1910s. By 1925, the NFL was composed of 40 teams—the largest professional football league in America at that time.

The First Goalposts

The National Football League (NFL) has been using goalposts to determine whether a field goal or extra point is good since the league’s inception in 1920. Originally, the NFL’s goalposts were located on the goal line, making it difficult to judge whether a kick was good or not. In 1927, the league moved the goalposts back to the back of the end zone, where they remain today.

The first ever NFL game

The first ever NFL game was played on October 3,1920 between the Dayton Triangles and the Columbus Panhandles. The game was won by the Triangles with a score of 14-0. The field was only 100 yards long, and there were no goalposts.

How the NFL was founded

In 1920, a group of professional football representatives from Philadelphia, New York, and Pittsburgh met to form a league and establish standardized rules for the sport. This meeting resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which would later be renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1922.

The first NFL season took place in 1920 with 14 teams. Since then, the league has undergone several changes, including the merger with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970 and the addition of new teams. But one thing has remained constant: The goalposts have always been located at the back of the end zone.

The Move to the Current Goalposts

In the 1974 season, the NFL moved the goalposts from the back of the end zone to the front. This was done to encourage more scoring and make the game more exciting. The current goalposts are 24 feet wide and 18 feet tall. They are also placed 10 yards from the back of the end zone.

Why the NFL decided to move the goalposts

The short answer to this question is that the NFL decided to move the goalposts in order to make the game safer.

The slightly longer answer is that, in 2008, the league’s Competition Committee proposed a rule change that would move the goalposts from the back of the end zone to the front. The rationale behind this was that, by moving the posts closer to the field of play, kicks that were previously successful would now be more likely to be missed, and thus there would be fewer successful onside kicks. In addition, they felt that this would also reduce the number of injuries associated with onside kicks, as players would no longer need to run as far downfield in order to recover the ball.

The rule change was approved by a vote of 24-4, and it went into effect for the 2008 season. Since then, there have been fewer successful onside kicks (although there is still a healthy percentage of them), and overall kickoffs have been moved up closer to the 40-yard line. This has resulted in more touchbacks, which is another safety measure that the league has been aiming for in recent years.

So, in short, the NFL moved the goalposts in order to make the game safer for its players.

How the move came about

In 2015, the NFL’s Competition Committee proposed moving the extra point back to the 15-yard line. The NFL owners voted on the proposal during their annual meeting a few months later and it passed by a margin of 30-2. The rule change was effective for the 2015 season.

The idea behind the move was to make the extra point more challenging, thus encouraging teams to go for two more often. In theory, this would make the game more exciting and entertaining for fans.

So far, the results have been mixed. In 2015, teams converted 94.2 percent of their extra points, which is down from 97.6 percent in 2014. However, only 41 percent of teams attempted a two-point conversion in 2015, which is up from 36 percent in 2014.

It’s still too early to tell if this rule change will have a significant impact on the game long-term. However, it has certainly made things interesting in the short-term.

The Impact of the Move

On March 23, 2015, the NFL announced that it was moving the goalposts an extra two feet back, making the total distance from the end line to the goalpost 32 feet. The move was made in order to reduce the number of extra point kicks that were being missed. This change had a big impact on the game of football.

How the move has affected the game

In 1977, the NFL moved the goalposts back 10 yards, from the front of the end zone to the back. The purpose of the move was to encourage more scoring and make the game more exciting.

The move had an immediate impact on the game. In the 1977 season, there were 11.5 percent more field goals attempted than in 1976, and 16 percent more made. Touchdowns also increased slightly. The following year, 1978, saw an even bigger jump in field goals: 11.9 percent more attempted and 18.6 percent more made than in 1977.

The goalpost move also had a curious side effect: It made it harder for teams to score late in games. Before the 1977 season, teams leading by 14 points or less attempted 14 percent of their total field goals in the fourth quarter; after 1978, that number jumped to 25 percent.

While it’s hard to say definitively why this happened, one theory is that moving the goalposts back increased the difficulty of kicking long field goals late in games when teams are trying to run out the clock. Another possibility is that teams became more conservative after the goalpost move, opting to go for field goals rather than risk turning the ball over on downs deep in their own territory.

Whatever the reason, the goalpost move had a significant impact on how NFL teams play late in games.

What the future holds for the NFL

The National Football League has been a fixture in the American sports landscape for over a century, and it shows no signs of slowing down. In recent years, however, the league has been facing some challenges to its popularity. One of the most significant is the growing number of concussions and other serious injuries that its players suffer.

In response to these concerns, the NFL has made some changes to try and make the game safer. One of these is moving the goalposts closer to the end zone, which should help reduce the number of injuries caused by players running into them.

It remains to be seen whether this move will be enough to address all of the concerns about player safety, but it is a step in the right direction. The NFL has always been a league that values tradition, but it has also shown that it is willing to make changes when necessary. That flexibility will likely serve it well in the years to come.