American Football is
a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with
goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with control of the oval-shaped
football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the
ball, while the team without control of the ball, the defense, aims to stop
their advance and take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must
advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the
football to the opposing team; if they succeed, they are given a new set of
four downs. Points are primarily scored 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.
American football evolved in the United States, originating
from the sport of rugby football. The first game of American football was
played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton,
under rules based on the association football rules of the time. During the
latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the
Rugby code, which allowed carrying the ball. A set of rule changes drawn up
from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," established
the snap, 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.
American football as a whole is the most popular sport in
the United States; professional football and college football are the most
popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and
youth football., 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 sports league in the world; its championship game, the Super
Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events in the world, and the
league has an annual revenue of around US$10 billion.
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". In countries where other codes of
football are popular, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the terms
"gridiron" or "American football" are favored.
Early history
American football evolved from the sport of rugby football.
Rugby, like American football, is a sport where two competing teams vie for
control of a ball, which can be kicked through a set of goalposts or run into
the opponent's goal area to score points.
The first American football game was played on November 6,
1869 between Rutgers and Princeton. The game was played between two teams of 25
players each, used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried, but it
could be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, with the ultimate
goal of advancing it into the opponent's goal. Rutgers won the game 6-4.
Collegiate play continued for several years in which matches were 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 all
schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of were
specified. Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style
game that allowed running with the ball.
Despite these new rules, football remained a violent sport.
Dangerous mass-formations like the flying wedge resulted in serious injuries or
even death. 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, sixty-two colleges and universities met in New York City to
discuss rule changes on December 28, 1905, and these proceedings resulted in
the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States,
later named the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The legal forward pass was introduced in 1906 after its
suggestion by John Heisman, although its impact was initially limited due to
the restrictions placed on its use. Other rule changes introduced that year
included the reduction of the time of play from 70 to 60 minutes and the
increase of the distance required for a first down from . To reduce infighting
and dirty play between teams, the neutral zone was created along the width of
the football. Scoring was also adjusted: field goals were lowered to three
points in 1909 and touchdowns were raised to six points in 1912. The field was
also reduced to long, but two 10-yard-long end zones were created, and teams
were given four downs instead of three to advance the ball . 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.
The professional era
The first instance of professional play in American football
was on November 12, 1892, when William "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 to help players attain employment, gave out
trophies or watches that players would pawn for money, or paid 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
outright illegal.
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 the premier professional football league.
The dominant form of football at the time was played at the
collegiate level, but the upstart NFL received a boost to its legitimacy in
1925 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 further distinguish itself from the college game
during the late 1930s.
The rival American Football League 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 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 on the 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; and several others, including
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 that 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 US $437,000
contract. 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 would take 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. That
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 would be 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 a four-team playoff system.
Teams and positions
A football game is played between two teams of 11 players
each. Playing with more on the field is punishable by a penalty. Teams may
substitute any number of their players between downs; this "platoon"
system replaced the original system, which featured limited substitution rules,
and has resulted in teams utilizing specialized offensive, defensive and
special teams squads.
Individual players in a football game must be designated
with a uniform number between 1 and 99. NFL teams are required to number their
players by a league-approved numbering system, and any exceptions must be
approved by the Commissioner.
Part Two coming tomorrow.
Tipster Street.
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