Passing
In American football, the offense can throw the ball forward once on a play from behind the line of scrimmage. The forward pass is a distinguishing feature of American and Canadian football as it is strictly forbidden in rugby.
The ball can be thrown sideways or backwards without restriction in both games. In American football this is known as a lateral and is much less common than in rugby union.
In both codes, if the ball is caught by an opposition player this results in an interception and possession changes hands.
Read more about this topic: Comparison Of American Football And Rugby Union
Famous quotes containing the word passing:
“Before passing different laws for different people, I’d relinquish myself unto you as your slave.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Politicians—power itself—are abject because they merely embody the profound contempt people have for their own lives.... One should be grateful to the politicians for accepting the abjectness of power, and ridding others of its burden. This inevitably kills them but they get their revenge by passing onto others the corpse of power.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“I saw the spires of Oxford
As I was passing by,
The grey spires of Oxford
Against a pearl-grey sky;
My heart was with the Oxford men
Who went abroad to die.”
—Winifred M. Letts (1887–1972)