Editing Flying wedge (section)

== Civilian applications ==

=== Policing ===
[[File:Aa flyingwedge plain.jpg|thumb|right|CG image of 7 policemen in riot gear charging in flying wedge]]
Police and law enforcement [[riot squad]]s sometimes charge in flying wedge formations, to break into a dense crowd as a [[snatch squad]] to arrest a leader or speaker, or to chop a long [[Demonstration (people)|demonstration]] march into segments.  It can also be used to escort VIPs through hostile crowds.

=== Sports ===<!-- This section is linked from [[American football]] -->
[[File:Flying-Wedge-harvard-1892.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Harvard unleashing a dangerous flying wedge on Yale, November 1892.]]
Although originally permitted in most [[Full-contact sport|full contact]] team sports, the use of the flying wedge is now banned for safety reasons in [[rugby union]],<ref>[http://www.irb.com/mm/Document/LawsRegs/0/070110LGLAW10red_667.pdf Section 4(n) of Law 10 of Rugby Union] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022212345/http://www.irb.com/mm/Document/LawsRegs/0/070110LGLAW10red_667.pdf |date=2007-10-22 }}</ref> [[rugby league]],<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/rod-macqueen-to-get-edge-with-wedge/story-e6frg7o6-1226007831223 | first=Bret | last=Harris | title=Rod Macqueen to get edge with wedge | date=18 February 2011 | work=The Australian}}</ref> and [[American football]].<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/sports/football/24nfl.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | first=Judy | last=Battista | title=Mindful of Violence, the N.F.L. Rules Out the Wedge Formation | date=24 May 2009}}</ref> 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, toward 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 <nowiki>''flying wedge''</nowiki> was utilized in the [[1869 Princeton vs. Rutgers football game|first game]] of intercollegiate football ever played, between [[1869 Rutgers Queensmen football team|Rutgers]] and [[1896 Princeton Tigers football team|Princeton]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The First Game: Nov. 6, 1869 |url=https://scarletknights.com/sports/2022/7/25/sports-m-footbl-archive-first-game-html.aspx |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=Rutgers University Athletics |language=en}}</ref>  [[John Warne Herbert Jr.]], a Rutgers player, recounted: "Though smaller on the average, the Rutgers players, as it developed, had ample speed and fine football sense. Receiving the ball, our men formed a perfect interference around it and with short, skillful kicks and dribbles drove it down the field. Taken by surprise, the Princeton men fought valiantly, but in five minutes we had gotten the ball through to our captains on the enemy's goal and Stephen G. Gano, and [[George Riley Dixon]] neatly kicked it over. None thought of it, so far as I know, but we had without previous plan or thought evolved the play that became famous a few years later as 'the flying wedge'."

The formation was formally developed by [[Lorin F. Deland]] and first introduced by [[Harvard University|Harvard]] in a [[Harvard-Yale football games (The Game)|collegiate game]] against [[Yale University|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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130828190115/http://footballencyclopedia.com/cfeintro.htm Introduction: A Brief History of College Football]</ref> 

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.<ref>[https://www.footballzebras.com/2019/11/when-is-it-a-foul-for-pulling-a-ball-carrier-forward/ When is it a foul for pulling a ball carrier forward?] ''FootballZebras.com'', November 2019.</ref> The concept of wedge-shaped formations continued to influence several football plays in the modern game, particularly on [[kickoff (gridiron football)|kickoff]] returns, until 2009 when NFL league owners agreed to stop its use.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> 

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.<ref>[https://www.nfl.com/news/no-wedge-means-major-adjustment-for-kickoff-units-09000d5d8104d93c "No wedge means major adjustment for kickoff units" NFL.com]</ref> Wedge blocking using only the shoulders to push forward teammates not holding the ball is still legal.  Some leagues went still farther in theoretically not allowing any transfer of momentum between teammates in blocking but that prohibition is commonly flouted. Consequently, some NFL teams today, when facing a short-yardage situation, will "push" a quarterback for a first down or a touchdown. In Philadelphia, this practice is (jokingly) referred to as "[[Quarterback sneak#Tush Push|The Brotherly Shove.]]"