American Football has proven extremely popular in Australia for a long time and has seen resurgent growth in the past few years with games on free to air and Australian’s playing in the NFL and NCAA College ranks.
Whilst the loyal fans love gridiron unabashedly, it is not uncommon to hear obtuse criticism questioning the helmet and pads, the stop start nature of the game and ultimately the complicated gameplay itself.
Gridiron Victoria is committed to honouring our Australian heritage and is looking to trial a new rule for the 2016 season.
The notion of a backwards pass, (typically a handoff to a running back or a pitch) will now be required with a handpass, commonly seen in Australian Rules Football or thrown with two hands sideways as practiced in the NRL.
“A lingering criticism of the great game of American Football here in Australia is that it’s, er too American.” says a GV spokesperson.
The QB to running back exchange is deemed such a conservative call we feel that by putting the football into the air it opens up an exciting new element GV representative
“By integrating a far more native and Australian sporting element we feel regular fans who have not yet accepted our great game will develop a new appreciation for Gridiron” the spokesperson added.
“The QB to running back exchange is deemed such a conservative call we feel that by putting the football into the air it opens up an exciting new element. Defenses will always force a pitch when faced with option plays, we think this ensures the same dynamic in every running play”.
The rule will be introduced for the 2016 Men’s season. Any exchange from a quarterback to another player that does not clearly motion through the air by way of a two handed passing motion or a traditional handpass motion of punching the football with one hand will be penalised 10 yards.