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From: wab@reed.UUCP (Baker)
Newsgroups: net.sport.football
Subject: Re: A rules question
Message-ID: <770@reed.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Dec-84 17:20:30 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.770
Posted: Sun Dec 30 17:20:30 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Jan-85 03:54:40 EST
References: <3811@ucbvax.ARPA>
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 60



	The fair catch is, I believe, yet
another leftover rule from the time that
American football developed from rugby, thereby
degenerating as a sport.
	In rugby, a player who wishes to catch
the ball may call for a "mark".  To do this he
shouts "mark" and simultaneously plants one
foot firmly in the pitch, making a mark.  He
must hold this mark and catch the ball on the
fly.  If he does this correctly, then the
referee awards him the mark and the player may
then free kick from the mark.  Since the mark
is normally a defensive maneuver, most free
kicks from marks are punts, but I believe that
the player may also drop-kick or place kick for
points just as one can after a fair-catch.
	Australian rules football is almost
totally a game of marks.  There, any catch on
the fly is a mark and a player may kick for
points.  Of course, Aussie rules also developed
from rugby, thereby degenerating...
	The real difference between these
maneuvers and a fair catch is that play goes on
until a referee awards the mark.  In Aussie
rules the mark is ubiquitous, so play does not
proceed very far.  In rugby, however, the mark
is not used much and the referee may take a few
seconds to decide and they often do not award
the mark.  All the while play goes on.  Also,
the mark is primarily used to deal with a very
high punt into the opposition's half of the
field.  This means that most times a mark is
called the opposition is very close.  The
fullback calls for a mark, the opposing pack
thunders down on him, and the fullback either
gets the mark or he doesn't.  The result for
the fullback is the same either way:  Once he
has the ball and until the referee, most likely
strolling comfortably far behind the play,
awards the mark the man is playable...and most
often played.  
	This is why rugby has very specific
rules regarding which player takes the free
kick if the player awarded the mark is unable
to take the kick due to injury.  Calling a mark
is sometimes the last play a player will make,
yet if the situation calls for it a rugger will
use it and get creamed.  This is interesting
when compared to football, a game in which the
players are padded all over (no pads at all in
rugby), which has significant penalties for
roughing a player who has called for a fair
catch.


			From a true rugby chauvinist,
			Bill Baker
			tektronix!reed!wab