We are so used to the NFL quarterback's of today being overly protected by an abundance of rules that we forget that there were days when they were running for their lives. For most of the first two decades of the league, defenses could beat the hell out of quarterbacks until the whistle was blown. Even after they handed off or had thrown the ball they could he hit, repeatedly. If the quarterback was on the field, he could be hit. That sort of brutality is hard to imagine today. The quarterback's were literally running for their lives after they had given up the ball. Fortunately for those abused quarterbacks, a rule was passed in 1938 that made it illegal to beat on the quarterback after he had given up the ball. They still faced some brutal treatment up until they no longer had the ball.
Facemasks weren't widely used until the 1950s. There were a lot of punches thrown on the sly. While in the act of making a play a fist would often find a face. Washington Redskins quarterback Sammy Baugh had a play in mind when the defense got a little wild with their fists. He would run the "bootsie play." In a bootsie play, Baugh explained, nobody blocks the "son of a bitch playing dirtier than hell." When the defender stormed into the backfield, Baugh would rifle a pass right between his eyes. On one particular occasion, Baugh hit the dirty lineman so hard that he stood straight up, then fell face down like a board. "It scared the living hell out of me," Baugh recalled. "I thought that I'd broken his damn neck or something and it had killed him." He survived.
The difference in quarterback treatment between those days and today is striking. The manner in which quarterbacks like Sammy Baugh dealt with brutality is even more striking. They didn't wait for rules to protect them. They took it upon themselves. I find it hilarious how quickly those flags fly today. I'd love to see a "bootsie play" called to even a score. It probably wouldn't work too well with the cages that some of these players call a facemask.
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