The Origin

It is said that rugby started when a group of men didn't want to follow the "no hands" rule of soccer, so to enforce the rules the other players tackled him. That's how they found out how enjoyable it is to inflict pain on others in order to win a ball. Then from that rugby evolved into the game we all love, football. Of course no one knows if this is even true, but we are positive that football has "ancestors" that date back before America was ever colonized.

The Teams

Again, no one knows for sure but people think that the Oneida Football Club was the first football club in America. This club was located in Boston, Massachusetts, and started in 1861. Around the same time the Canadian football league started in Montreal, Canada. The game was a little different back then. The teams were made up of 25 players: 11 Fielders, 12 Bulldogs, and two Peanutters. That is totally different than today's game, people have a lot more specific jobs that go into greater detail. The NFL suggests that this game was based more on soccer than on rugby but it did, ultimately start football in college, therefore, increasing its popularity.

College Football

Yale's football coach Walter Camp made a lot of major and familiar changes to the game. He made it where there were 11 player teams, a smaller field, at the beginning of the play the ball had to go backwards at the start, and probably the biggest change was if the offense didn't gain 5 yards in three downs they had to turn the ball over to the opposition. Later in his career this great man also made the basic offence. He had a 7 man line, a quarterback, two running backs, and lastly one fullback. This man basically created the modern game of football single handedly.

-The Field Change- The field used to be a total of 120 yards(not counting the end zone) Now it's twenty yards shorter for a total of 100 yards.
-The Point Change- Touchdowns used to be 2 points and field goals 5. Now it's changed to field goals are 3 and touchdowns are 6.
-The Football- The first footballs used to be about 23 inches around the widest parts and a solid oval shape. Now it's 20.75 inches around the widest part and a prolate spherical ball.

The sport soon took off and in 1892 William Heffelinger (an all-American guard who played for Yale) was the first paid player. He was paid $500 to play. Then 3 years later the very first all professional game was played and it was the Jeannette Athletic Club against Latrobe YMCA.

Player Death and Injuries

Football quickly had the reputation of a high risk sport. In 1905 alone 18 players were killed during play. This was in large part due to the lack of protective gear, interlocking defensive formations, and players dragging the ball carrier to gain extra yards. So the league made 6 players from each team line up in the neutral zone and the forward pass was also legalized. Sadly those changes were not enough. In 1908, 33 more players were killed on the field. So they finally banned the interlocking formations and added even more protective padding. Other changes include the 4th down and a 6 point touchdown.

Professional Football

In 1920, the Professional Football League was established. The 11 teams of the Midwest elected Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe as the president of the league. Then with only one official year the league changed its name to the National Football League. The league was nothing like it is today. It wasn't very popular and teams moved from city to city quite often. By the time 1933, came around, just about every team was in a major Midwest city like Chicago, St. Louis, or Cleveland. Then in 1950 the first West Coast team came when the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles. The Biggest year for football however is probably the year 1967. With surging popularity the league grew large enough to make two different conferences, which aloud the creation of the Super Bowl( most watched event in television history). It also aloud the great creation of Monday Night Football.

Football

Football is the most popular sport in America. Now with significant changes like new better gear and protective rules the game has become safer and faster. It has always been changing and it will keep on changing. Now the popularity is not just contained in the United Sates. Other countries are taking part in it like Japan, Mexico, and even some countries in Europe where the game expands and grows even larger.