There are three things that can happen when you throw a pass,and two of them are bad. -Woody HayesThe quarterback pass is one of the leading offensive components of today's NationalFootball League and college football's top level of play. This was not always the case.In early American football, the strategy focused entirely on advancing the ball onerunning play at a time, with the player tucking the then-roundish ball on his hip andsprinting ahead until tackled by a swarm of defenders. The revolution that transformedthe sport began in 1906, when passing was first legalized. The passing weapon madethe game safer, altered strategy, turned the quarterback into a key offensive player, andmade possible the high-scoring games of today.Lew Freedman traces football's passing game from its inception to the present,telling the tale through the stories of the quarterbacks whose arms carried (and threw)the changes forward. Freedman relies especially on the biography of ''Slingin' Sammy''Baugh-who hailed from Sweetwater, Texas-as a framework. Baugh, perhaps thegreatest all-around football player in history, came along at just the right time to elevatethe passing game to unprecedented importance in the eyes of the sports world.