I walk in the playground/basketball court of a school and notice a football on the bench. Someone was much more interested in football than basketball. But, not too interested because it is 7 a.m., and the football must have been left here since yesterday since there is no one around. I will confess that I am not a football fan, but I do usually pay attention to how my alma mater, Oklahoma State University, is doing in football. The team should do well, especially since Texas oilman, entrepreneur and OSU graduate T. Boone Pickens donated $165 million, the largest single donation for athletics to an institution of higher education in American history. Unfortunately, my father and my nephew are the only ones in our family who are big football fans. My nephew even became a sports video producer and covered football games for ESPN and Fox Sports 1.
According to Wikipedia, American football — referred to as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron — is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense — the team with possession of the oval-shaped football — attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense — the team without possession of the ball — aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.
The photo above depicts Larry Fitzgerald in blue catching a pass while Cortland Finnegan in red plays defense in the 2009 Pro Bowl.
American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football match was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp — the "Father of American Football" — established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone and specified the size and shape of the football. The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game — although their rules were developed independently from that of Camp's. Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football. The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.
American football is the most popular sport in the United States. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually. The National Football League — the most popular American football league — has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events in the world. The league has an annual revenue of around $13 billion. Other professional leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball.
Etymology and names
In the United States, American football is referred to as "football." The term "football" was officially established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season, when the sport first shifted from soccer-style rules to rugby-style rules. Although it could easily have been called "rugby" at this point, Harvard — one of the primary proponents of the rugby-style game — compromised and did not request the name of the sport be changed to "rugby". The terms "gridiron" or "American football" are favored in English-speaking countries where other types of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.
Early history
What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6, 1869, between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams. They consisted of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, with the objective being to advance it into the opponent's goal. Rutgers won the game 6–4. Collegiate play continued for several years with matches played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19, 1873, to create a standard set of rules for use by all schools. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified. Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. After playing McGill University using both Canadian and American rules, the Harvard players preferred the Canadian style of having only 11 men on the field, running the ball without having to be chased by an opponent, the forward pass, tackling and using an oblong instead of a round ball.
The painting above of the first American football game is by Rutgers graduate William Boyd, depicting the game. The goal posts and ball used are more in the style of association football rather than American football.
An 1875 Harvard–Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two Princeton athletes who were impressed by it. They introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to "selling refrigerators to Eskimos.” Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to intercollegiate play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879. Yale player Walter Camp — now regarded as the "Father of American Football" — secured rule changes in 1880 that reduced the size of each team from 15 to 11 players and instituted the snap to replace the chaotic and inconsistent scrum.
The introduction of the snap resulted in an unexpected consequence. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position. However, a group of Princeton players realized that as the snap was uncontested, they could now hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, in a game between Yale and Princeton, both teams used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records. Each team held the ball — gaining no ground for an entire half — resulting in a 0–0 tie. This "block game" proved extremely unpopular with both teams' spectators and fans.
A rule change was necessary to prevent this strategy from taking hold, and a reversion to the scrum was considered. However, Camp successfully proposed a rule in 1882 that limited each team to three downs or tackles to advance the ball five yards. Failure to advance the ball the required distance within those three downs would result in control of the ball being forfeited to the other team. This change effectively made American football a separate sport from rugby, and the resulting five-yard lines added to the field to measure distances made it resemble a gridiron in appearance. Other major rule changes included a reduction of the field size to 110 by 53 1⁄3 yards and the adoption of a scoring system that awarded four points for a touchdown, two for a safety and a goal following a touchdown and five for a goal from the field. Additionally, tackling below the waist was legalized, and a static line of scrimmage was instituted.
Despite these new rules, football remained a violent sport. Dangerous mass-formations like the flying wedge resulted in serious injuries and deaths. A 1905 peak of 19 fatalities nationwide resulted in a threat by President Theodore Roosevelt to abolish the game unless major changes were made. In response, 62 colleges and universities met in New York City to discuss rule changes on December 28, 1905. These proceedings resulted in the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, later renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The legal forward pass was introduced in 1906, although its impact was initially minimal due to the restrictions placed on its use. The idea of a 40-yard-wider field was opposed by Harvard due to the size of the new Harvard Stadium. Other rule changes introduced that year included the reduction of playing time from 70 to 60 minutes and an increase of the distance required for a first down from five to 10 yards. To reduce infighting and dirty play between teams, the neutral zone was created along the width of the football before the snap. Scoring was also adjusted: points awarded for field goals were reduced to three in 1909 and points for touchdowns were raised to six in 1912. The field was also shortened to 100 yards long, but two 10-yard-long end zones were created, and teams were given four downs instead of three to advance the ball 10 yards. The roughing the passer penalty was implemented in 1914, and eligible players were first allowed to catch the ball anywhere on the field in 1918.
Professional era
On November 12, 1892, Pudge Heffelfinger was paid $500 to play a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association in a match against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. This is the first recorded instance of a player being paid to participate in a game of American football, although many athletic clubs in the 1880s offered indirect benefits — such as helping players attain employment, giving out trophies or watches that players could pawn for money, or paying double in expense money. Despite these extra benefits, the game had a strict sense of amateurism at the time, and direct payment to players was frowned upon, if not prohibited outright.
Over time, professional play became increasingly common and with it came rising salaries and unpredictable player movement, as well as the illegal payment of college players who were still in school. The National Football League — a group of professional teams that was originally established in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association — aimed to solve these problems. This new league's stated goals included an end to bidding wars over players, prevention of the use of college players and abolition of the practice of paying players to leave another team. By 1922, the NFL had established itself as America's premier professional football league.
The dominant form of football at the time was played at the collegiate level. The upstart NFL received a boost to its legitimacy in 1925, however, when an NFL team, the Pottsville Maroons, defeated a team of Notre Dame all-stars in an exhibition game. A greater emphasis on the passing game helped professional football to distinguish itself further from the college game during the late 1930s. Football, in general, became increasingly popular following the 1958 NFL Championship game, a match between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants that is still referred to as the "Greatest Game Ever Played." A 23–17 overtime victory by the Colts, the game was seen by millions of television viewers and had a major impact on the popularity of the sport. This game — along with the innovations introduced by the new American Football League in the early 1960s — helped football to become the most popular sport in the United States by the mid-1960s.
The rival AFL arose in 1960 and challenged the NFL's dominance. The AFL began in relative obscurity but eventually thrived, with an initial television contract with the ABC television network. The AFL's existence forced the conservative NFL to expand to Dallas and Minnesota in an attempt to destroy the new league. Meanwhile, the AFL introduced many new features to professional football in the United States:
- Official time was kept on a scoreboard clock rather than on a watch in the referee's pocket, as the NFL did.
- Optional two-point conversions by pass or run after touchdowns.
- Names on the jerseys of players.
- Expansion of the role of minority players, actively recruited by the league in contrast to the NFL.
The AFL also signed several star college players who had also been drafted by NFL teams. Competition for players heated up in 1965, when the AFL New York Jets signed rookie Joe Namath to a then-record $437,000 contract — equivalent to $2.71 million in 2018. A five-year, $40 million NBC television contract followed, which helped to sustain the young league. The bidding war for players ended in 1966 when NFL owners approached the AFL regarding a merger, and the two leagues agreed on one that took full effect in 1970. This agreement provided for a common draft that would take place each year, and it instituted an annual World Championship game to be played between the champions of each league. This championship game began play at the end of the 1966 season. Once the merger was completed, it was no longer a championship game between two leagues and reverted to the NFL championship game, which came to be known as the Super Bowl.
College football maintained a tradition of postseason bowl games. Each bowl game was associated with a particular conference and earning a spot in a bowl game was the reward for winning a conference. This arrangement was profitable, but it tended to prevent the two top-ranked teams from meeting in a true national championship game, as they would normally be committed to the bowl games of their respective conferences. Several systems have been used since 1992 to determine a national champion of college football. The first was the Bowl Coalition, in place from 1992 to 1994. This was replaced in 1995 by the Bowl Alliance, which gave way in 1997 to the Bowl Championship Series. The BCS arrangement proved to be controversial, and was replaced in 2014 by the College Football Playoff.
Safety and brain health
Football is a full-contact sport, and injuries are relatively common. Most injuries occur during training sessions, particularly ones that involve contact between players. To try to prevent injuries, players are required to wear a set of equipment. At a minimum players must wear a football helmet and a set of shoulder pads, but individual leagues may require additional padding such as thigh pads and guards, knee pads, chest protectors and mouthguards. Most injuries occur in the lower extremities— particularly in the knee — but a significant number also affect the upper extremities. The most common types of injuries are strains, sprains, bruises, fractures, dislocations and concussions.
Repeated concussions — and possibly sub-concussive head impacts — can increase a person's risk in later life for chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE and mental health issues such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease and depression. Concussions are often caused by helmet-to-helmet or upper-body contact between opposing players, although helmets have prevented more serious injuries such as skull fractures. Various programs are aiming to reduce concussions by reducing the frequency of helmet-to-helmet hits; USA Football’s "Heads Up Football" program aims to reduce concussions in youth football by teaching coaches and players about the signs of a concussion, the proper way to wear football equipment and ensure it fits and proper tackling methods that avoid helmet-to-helmet contact. However, a study in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that Heads Up Football was ineffective; the same study noted that more extensive reforms implemented by Pop Warner Little Scholars and its member teams were effective in significantly reducing concussion rates.
A 2018 study performed by the VA Boston Healthcare System and the Boston University School of Medicine found that tackle football before age 12 was correlated with earlier onset of symptoms of CTE, but not with symptom severity. More specifically, each year a player played tackle football under age 12 predicted earlier onset of cognitive, behavioral and mood problems by an average of two and a half years.
The safety of the sport has also sparked national controversy in American popular culture. It is often received as "overly aggressive" and defamiliarized in popular culture. The 2015 film “Concussion” aimed to shed light on the sport's safety, specifically in the NFL by having Will Smith portray Dr. Bennet Omalu, a neuropathologist who was the first to discover and publish findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.
Popularity and cultural impact
"Baseball is still called the national pastime, but football is by far the more popular sport in American society," according to ESPN.com's Sean McAdam. In a 2014 poll conducted by Harris Interactive, professional football ranked as the most popular sport, and college football ranked third behind only professional football and baseball; 46% of participants ranked some form of the game as their favorite sport. Professional football has ranked as the most popular sport in the poll since 1985, when it surpassed baseball for the first time. Professional football is most popular among those who live in the eastern United States and rural areas, while college football is most popular in the southern United States and among people with graduate and post-graduate degrees. Football is also the most-played sport by high school and college athletes in the United States. In a 2012 study, the NCAA estimated there were around 1.1 million high school football players and nearly 70,000 college football players in the United States; in comparison, the second-most played sport — basketball — had around 1 million participants in high school and 34,000 in college. The Super Bowl is the most popular single-day sporting event in the United States and is among the biggest club sporting events in the world in terms of TV viewership. The NFL makes approximately $10 billion annually. Super Bowl games account for seven of the top eight most-watched broadcasts in American history; Super Bowl XLIX, played on February 1, 2015, was watched by a record 114.4 million Americans.
American football also plays a significant role in American culture. The day on which the Super Bowl is held is considered a de facto national holiday, and in parts of the country like Texas, the sport has been compared to a religion. Football is also linked to other holidays; New Year's Day is traditionally the date for several college football bowl games, including the Rose Bowl. However, if New Year's Day is on a Sunday, the bowl games are moved to another date so as not to conflict with the typical NFL Sunday schedule. Thanksgiving football is an American tradition, hosting many high school, college and professional games. Steve Deace of USA Today wrote that Americans are passionate about football "because it embodies everything we love about American exceptionalism. Merit is rewarded, not punished. Masculinity is celebrated, not feminized. People of various beliefs and backgrounds — a melting pot, if you will — must unify for a common goal for the team to be successful." Implicit rules such as playing through pain and sacrificing for the better of the team are promoted in football culture.
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