The popular Anglo-American team sports are often discussed as having common ancient ancestors that developed into their modern forms relatively late. Proto-football became American Gridiron Football, Association Football, Rugby Football etc. Townball became Rounders, Baseball, Cricket.
People often talk about how small changes in the rules would totally alter these sports. Do we have any examples of variations that failed to develop for reasons of poorly chosen rules?
Hey, here's something I can answer. While I am not a sports historian, I am an ncaa (American gridiron) football official (and have been for many years) with a firm understanding of the rules and rule changes as well as a bit of research into the history of the game. Mods, please let me know if you need citations or anything to make a better comment if I'm not entirely following the rules. I will also be happy to privately validate my role as a NCAA football official if necessary (/r/CFB mods already have if that helps).
When you have a sport with rules and mechanics, such as American football, the rules change yearly to accommodate either ideas or actual plays on the field that is felt not in the spirit of the game. So the game constantly changes to make it more appealing to the players and fans. From what I've researched there is no "failed spin-off" simply because of this evolution of the game.
Some sports evolve in a more appealing way and others in less appealing ways, which is why baseball went from the most popular past time and supplanted by NASCAR and NFL. However, I cannot find an instances here a sport simply failed due to the rules of the game.