NFL and College Football KICKS BUTT!

The history of American Football is generally traced back to its roots in the game of rugby. Rugby is similar in many respects to American football and soccer (which the rest of the world calls football)

Prior to the 19^th century the game of football referred to a variety of games played on foot and with balls. There were, and still are, many varieties of “foot ball” with some games allowing the players to use their hands (running games), but with some not allowing it (kicking games).

One story going around is that American football got its start when a rugby player picked the ball up and ran because he got tired of the slow pace of the game. The players on the other side saw him as cheating so they tackled the dude. All the players thought this was a lot of fun and as a result the running version of football was born. Who knows if this is a true story or not, but it is kind of fun and stranger things have happened.

In the mid 1800s, American football games were predominantly played by students at the elite schools and universities like Yale, Harvard and Princeton. The Ivy League schools all played similar versions of football up through the mid 1800′s. Soon after the Civil War ended a few colleges started football leagues and adopted some basic rules. In 1869 the first College Football game on record was then played in Rutgers and Princeton. The game was played with 25 people on each side consisting of 12 bulldogs, 11 fielders, and two peanutters – who hung out near the opponents goal so they could try score from positions that weren’t guarded (in kid’s soccer we called these cherry-pickers). The fact that they had players stationed in front of the opponents goal indicates that the “offside” rule did not yet exist. Rutgers won.

Another huge leap in College Football History occurred in 1873 when a few colleges (Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers ) got together and established rules for game and set the number of players that could be on the field at one time. The rules they set up restricted players from throwing or running with the ball. It was in essence still soccer.

The National Football League maintains that these early games of football were based on soccer – not rugby and that football did not start in colleges. I’ll stay out of that argument.

Walter Camp, of Yale is generally given credit as being the father of modern American football. From 1880 to 1883 he came up with several tweaks and innovations for the game such as eleven players on the field per team, a smaller field, and the line of scrimmage, which at the time was when one player handed the ball backwards to another player marking the start of the play. An even more important change was the idea of downs which he started in 1882. At first it was three downs to gain five yards but soon changed to four downs to obtain 10 yards. Camp also initiated more strategy into football when he started using formations of a quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback seven-man line.

Football soon became popular but it was also very brutal and dangerous to all the players. With a complete lack of proper safety equipment injuries and deaths were common. The sport’s injuries had become such a huge issue that president Teddy Roosevelt appointed a group of seven people to govern the sport. Thus was born the National Athletic Association which we now call the NCAA.

This new committee established a host of new rules like the forward pass. Safety measures that penalized players for rough or unsafe deeds were also established. A major change banned the strategy of players interlocking their arms and blocking as one unit. The game was also shortened to the 60 and the neutral zone between the offensive and defensive lines was also set.

College football has had enormous success, as has Professional, High School, and youth leagues. Thousands of teams now compete every fall weekend and millions of fans are involved.