Nathan from Denver, CO
When did the spike play become a legal way to stop the clock, and what was it before?
I can’t find the exact year it began, but I believe it was in the ’80s. Prior to being able to stop the clock by spiking the ball, a quarterback had to throw an incomplete pass by making it appear as though he was attempting to complete a pass. The most common way to do that was by throwing the ball out of bounds over a receiver’s head. It would require a couple of more seconds to execute that play than it does to spike the ball.