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:
“How the imagination is piqued by anecdotes of some great man passing incognito, as a king in gray clothes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is the blankness that follows gaiety, and Everyman must depart
Out there into stranded night, for his destiny
Is to return unfruitful out of the lightness
That passing time evokes.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“We all end up living secret lives. We create what we are willing to admire and admiring what we shouldn’t confess to the secret of our own sin, our own insufficiency, our own sadness. We all end up taking our secrets into the world and handing them over to strangers, only to realize it’s often too late to claim them back. The very nature of time passing is sad beyond words. Memories mean they’re gone.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)