Although originally permitted in most
full contact team sports, the use of the flying wedge is now banned for safety reasons in
rugby union,
[14] rugby league,
[15] and
American football.
[16] The principle is similar to the military application:
the ball carrier starts an attack and is joined on both sides by teammates who drive them forward towards the goal line. However due to the number of deaths and serious injuries related to the flying wedge, any attempt at this formation is now punished by in-game penalties.
In
American football, the formation was developed by
Lorin F. Deland and first introduced by
Harvard in a
collegiate game against
Yale in 1892. Teammates would lock themselves together with the ball carrier using their hands and arms and rush forward. But despite its practicality, it was outlawed two seasons later in 1894 because of its contribution to serious injury.
[17] The penalty against assisting the runner, which forbids the locking together of players as well as pushing and pulling the ball carrier to increase force in the same manner as the historic flying wedge, remains in the American football rule books; its eradication has been so complete that the foul has not been called in the National Football League since 1991.[18] The concept of wedge-shaped formations continued to influence several football plays in the modern game, particularly on
kickoff returns, until 2009 when NFL league owners agreed to stop its use.
[16] Recent changes in the rules at various levels regarding runbacks of free kicks are stricter still in that they restrict blocking by teammates close together even without touching each other. The "wedge" commonly referred to in interference on free kick returns simply meant such a close group of blockers.
[19] Wedge blocking using only the shoulders to push forward teammates not holding the ball is still legal. Professional and Canadian football went still farther in theoretically not allowing any transfer of momentum between teammates in blocking but that prohibition is not strictly enforced.
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