Early Reference To Passing In Football

From Suffolk in 1823

Early Reference To Passing In Football

This Wikipedia page contains a pretty good description of the history of passing in association football. It contains a somewhat vague reference to a game resembling an early form of football played in Suffolk and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia page contains only a single nondescriptive quotation. Here’s the full quote from the work in question:

This reads like a particular local variant of what we now think of as “medieval football” or “mob football,” a game that was clearly the predecessor of rugby and that had little to no rules. It’s interesting to see, however, that passing was part of the game at such an early date.

It would also be nice if there were a more legible scan. I think this is a Google digital version of an earlier microfilm scan.