History of Football Essay

The biography of foot twine wager is interesting as well as exciting, from the initiatory base forms of the wager forever contend, to the multi million dollar organizations of today. The plunk for continues to evolve and throw with the times. football game is a sport that evolved from many contrasting blues. Football is mainly know as a different form of rugby or soccer, but at that place is more to the origin of the halt than just those two sports. Football wagers were compete around the world before the game was actually called football game game. Football is believed to stick descended from a Greek game called Harpaston ( ancestor C). The rules in Harpaston were not actually strict.Running, kic index, or passing the ball across the goal line could earn points. It is believed that the Chinese played some form of soccer around 500 A. D ( line M). The earliest soccer games in England consisted of people running around on a field kicking a skull. This skull ki cking game go along until someone had the idea to use an inflated cow bladder, which al small(a)ed for the ball to be kicked greater distances and was much easier on the foot of the participants. In the twelfth century, the king of England outlawed the game of futeball because it took away from the English customs of archery.The game was considered outlaw(prenominal) for four hundred years. Once it was allowed to resume, it was called soccer. another(prenominal) ancestor of football is the Irish game of Gaelic rugby. This game basically consisted of teams trying to advance the ball across the goal line, much same Greek Harpaston. Once the game do it across the Atlantic to America it fountained to take on characteristics of the game we now call football today. When football crossed the Atlantic naval and came to America it would undergo a major change. at that place were many different forms of the game in America, Princeton University students played a game called ? Ballown in the 1920s, which was the earliest attempt at modern football. Harvard University students would always play a football-like game on the jump off Monday of the new school year, it became known as ? blooming(a) Monday. But, the for the first time official game took place on November 9th 1869 betwixt Princeton University and Rutgers University. twain teams had twenty-five players, which led to galvanic pile confusion and chaos, in any case the goal posts were alone twenty-five special Ksapart, causing a very small field ( microbe J). It was open-and-shut that the sport needed some new rules and Mr. Walter populate was the man to explicate them. Walter Camp was a star player and later on a posture at his alma mater, Yale University. Walter Camp contributed to the definition of modern-day football more than anyone he helped change the game from its form of rugby style to the modern game it is today. Walter Camp is known as the father of American football (Source J). As the game grew in ordinaryity more people began playing it, but the game was considered too brutal. Before 1905 many injuries and eighteen deaths had been reported from the brutal mass plays, President Roosevelt asked the schools to set rules to save the game from extinction (Source C). In reception to the Presidents plea, representatives from several different schools got together to set some rules, which would forever change the game. The schools decided that a touchdown should be worth more, so in 1898 it was changed from four to five points, and eventually changed from five to six. While on the other bridge player the field goal was dropped from five points to four, and then down to three (Source I).Another problem with the game is that it was very boring. To help end this boredom Walter Camp came up with the idea of first downs. With this rule, teams must gain ten yards in four attempts or the ball is turned over. To help protect players safety, brasss like the flying V and wedge were do illegal. Probably the most strategic rule change was the legalization of the forward pass. To accommodate for this new rule, colleges also created an end zone ten yards deep to allow the ball to be caught in safely. The first captain games took place between athletic clubs.The first player to play for money was William W. Pudge Heffelinger. Heffelinger played at Yale University where he made the Walter Camp All American team for three straight years. Heffelinger was nonrecreational five hundred dollars to play a game for the Allegheny acrobatic connectedness of Pittsburgh. Heffelinger is known as the first skipper football player (Source H). The first professional to sign a contract was Grant Dilbert who signed with the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. Soon after this, many teams started paying money for the best players.On September 17 1920 representatives met to form the American Professional Football draw (APFA) (Source H). In 1922 the APFA was renamed the National Football League (NFL). During this time, any town that could bloodline the money was forming a football team, even two Philadelphia baseball teams constituted professional football teams. During this time, professional football was not as popular as college football. Due to betting and recruiting scandals, Americans were not as interested in the NFL as they were in the collegiate games.The league reached an all time low in 1932 when it had a membership of eight teams. However, over time the formation of legendary teams like the Decatur Staleys, later renamed the Chicago Bears, and the small town fountain Bay Packers, and also due to the emergence of heroic players, this new league would win over the hearts of American football fans. One of the first famous football players was Jim Thorpe. Thorpe, an Indian born in Oklahoma, would become a great college player, as well as a great professional player.Jim Thorpe signed his first professional contract with the Canton Bulldogs at a p rice of two hundred fifty a game (Source H). Although he is considered one of the great players it is believed that Jim did not play his tightest all the time, he played hard only when he wanted to. He also use shoulder pads with a layer of sheet metal under them, so he could hit opposing players even harder. Jim was not just a great football player he was an Olympian as well, pleasing several medals in the Olympics. Harold Red Grange was a legendary college player nicknamed, ? The Galloping phantasma.Red helped college fans appreciate the professional game, he signed his first professional contract ten days after his college career had ended. Red Grange made his professional debut on Thanksgiving day before a crowd of over 10,000 fans, before his arrival in professional football the crowds were usually measured in the hundreds(Source H). Sammy Baugh and Otto Graham reinvented the passing game of football. They were considered the first gunslingers of football. All of these player s helped revolutionize the game. Growing in popularity, the game of football was or so to take some hugesteps.In 1932 the first indoor game was played due to weather, the game was played on an eighty yard field (Source J). During the Great Depression the NFL thrived, giving Americans something to take their minds off of the hard times. During World War II younger players enlisted so older players were drafted into the league. later on the war, the popularity of the NFL grew. In 1939 the National Broadcasting Corporation was the first station to broadcast an NFL game between the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Philadelphia Eagles (Source F). In 1951 a game between the St.Louis Rams and the Cleveland Browns was the first to be broadcast from coast to coast. As the professional game grew in popularity it expanded as well. More teams were added while others were dropped. In 1946 when football was very popular in the United States, the American Football League (AFL) was formed. The AFL and NFL would later combine to form what is now known as todays National Football League. Many people argued about which league was stronger, the American League or the National Football League. Many people believed the NFL was stronger, and others notion the AFL was more powerful.To find out which conference was stronger the first Super roster was staged. In 1967 the first Super Bowl featured the NFLs spurt Bay Packers playing against the AFLs Kansas City Chiefs (Source F). The game was dominated by the Green Bay Packers, making them the first Super Bowl champions. The start of the Super Bowls would later lead to the merger of the NFL and the AFL to form the menstruum consolidated National Football League. Since the first collegiate game between Princeton and Rutgers, football has changed in very many different ways.Of the thirteen teams in the league in 1920 only the Chicago Bears and St. Louis Cardinals, now the Arizona Cardinals, remain. There have been many classic and memorabl e moments in professional football history, like Chuck Bednariks ferocious hit on hotdog Gifford, as seen on the cover of this report, John Elways leadership of the capital of Colorado Broncos on The Drive, the 1972 Miami Dolphins undefeated season, and Joe Montanas victory-clinching pass to Dwight Clark, which is merely known as The Catch. The game of football has a bounteous history.It has evolved in many different ways but continues to hold onto the tradition and basic format it was built upon. The game will continue to rise up and change with the times but will always be known as Americas greatest game.Source A A Brief History of The Game www. hornetfootball. org/documents/football-history. htm Source B American Football History wiwi. essortment. com/americanfootball_rwff. htm 2002 Pagewire Source C Buckley James. Americas Greatest Game. upstart York. Hyperian Books For Children. 1998. Source D Football History-Just What entertainment are We Talking to the highest degree A nyway? www. sportsknowhow. com/football/history/football-history. shtml. 2004 A Website of Internet Marketing untrammeled Source E History of Football http//inventors/about/com/ad/fstartinventions/a/historyfootball/htm. 2007 New York Times Company Source F History of The Sport www. usafootball. com/about-us/history-of-the-sport/. 2006 USA Football Source G History www. profootballhoffestival. com/festival/history/asp 2005 Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival Source H LaBlanc, L. Michael. Professional Sports Teams Histories. Detroit, MI Gale Research Inc.1994 Source I NFL History www. NFL. com/history. 2007 NFL Enterprises LLC Source J Riffenburgh, Beau. The Official History of Pro Football. New York Crescent Books, 1990 Source K Rules And Information. www. football. com/rulesabc/origins. shtmlbegin. 2003 Football. com Source L The First Fifty days New York Simon & Schuster Inc. 1969. Source M Tuttle, Dennis. The Composite Guide to Football. Philadelphia. Chelsea House Publishers Sou rce N Wallace, Bill. Nelsons Encyclopedia of Pro Football. New York William N. Wallace 1969.