Burnside Rules

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The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed North American football from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game played in both Canada (Canadian football) and the United States (American football). Named after Thrift Burnside, captain of the University of Toronto football team, and first adopted by the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1903, the rules introduced sweeping changes to the way football was played. The rules included:

• the reduction to 12 players per side from the standard 15
• the "snap-back" system in which the ball was heeled backward from the line of scrimmage by the center
• the requirement for a team to make ten yards in three successive downs or lose possession of the ball
• the reduction to six men from the previous eight allowed on the line of scrimmage when the ball was put into play.

Although these rules are standard today, at the time they were considered radical. Other teams outside the Ontario Rugby Football Union refused to adopt them until 1905.