Football has quickly become the most influential and popular sport in the United States of America. Millions of people tune into games on Mondays, Thursdays, and of course Sundays, as well as the millions who play fantasy football year over year. The societal impact of football in America cannot be understated. Let’s dive into how it happened.
American football is a sport derived from both soccer and European rugby. It obviously is much different from those sports today.
Universities were the first to begin to breach the rules of soccer and rugby in order to begin to conceive the game we know today. Harvard University is the first known example of replacing rugby rules. In rugby, they put the ball in play by doing a “scrum”, in which players from both teams surround the ball and fight to capture it. Instead, they had a player kick it back to another teammate, which eventually developed into the snap you see from a center to a quarterback. In terms of being adapted from soccer, we see similarities in the amount of players on the field, field shape, and movement strategies. The biggest difference came in the split in play football has, whereas soccer plays constantly for a set amount of time.
The first intercollegiate football game, though it didn’t look like it does today, was played between Princeton and Rutgers on November 6, 1869 in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The game was very dull in its early days. Teams would even just stand for the entire time in order to end in a scoreless tie, because there weren't any rules and regulations against it. The “Father of American Football”, Walter Camp, headed the changing and adding of rules over the late 1880s. Some he developed include the number of players per team, having to advance the ball or give it up (first downs), a point scoring system, and a line of scrimmage.
After the integration and change of many significant rules, the game began to open up a lot. It began to look a lot like rugby, with long runs and several laterals.
In order to equalize the difference in speed between players, Camp suggested allowing tackling below the waist in 1888. This led to an extreme jump in injury and almost got the game completely abolished before they eventually made additional amendments to tackling requirements.
While college football thrived during the early 1900s, professional football was still finding its footing. The American Professional Football Organization was formed in 1920, which eventually became the National Football League, with Jim Thorpe as its inaugural president. In the 1920s and 1930s, team membership fluctuated between 8 and 22 teams.
In 1933, the NFL took its normal shape with two separate divisions of teams who would meet in the title game at the end of the season. The growth of professional football in New York became significant to the development of the league, as the city had no college teams to compete with.
Professional football really began to take off due to the growth of national television. The specific structure translated perfectly to television broadcasts and as more people saw the game on their TVs, professional football popularity skyrocketed.
The American Football League provided a new rival for the NFL in 1960, agreeing to a television contract with NBC, giving the league unprecedented financial security. The NFL became so worried about being overrun, they agreed to merge with the AFL in 1966. The AFL was more pass-oriented, which provided the NFL an exciting and fast playstyle. It also introduced one of the game's biggest stars: Joe Namath of the New York Jets.
The first Super Bowl (before that name was coined) was played between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers in the year of the merger. Once fans saw the pageantry and competition this event brought, professional football went to an even higher level. With 51.18 million viewers and nearly 62,000 fans in attendance, this event became the most lucrative United States sporting competition ever.
The league continued to innovate in terms of rules and teams, while battling off rival leagues along the way in the 1970s and 80s. Polls conducted in these decades clearly concluded that America’s favorite sport was indeed professional football.
Along with these rule changes, free agency and team relocation added to the popularity of the modern-day NFL. The league has never been afraid to make changes, and still continues to make regulation and agreement changes to this day.
Playstyles have continued to change and adapt throughout the 21st century as well, with every coaching staff having their own philosophy. From a pass-first offense, power running team, or 3-4 versus 4-3 defenses, both sides of the line of scrimmage are constantly being adjusted to provide more output and a better product on the field.
We continue to see the societal impact of football every day. Social media is flooded with highlights, millions play fantasy football and gamble on the sport, and it is by far the most watched sport in the country. People are always looking forward to Sunday, Monday, and even Thursday, no matter what teams are on the field.
While the game has changed heavily over the past several decades, it’s still the same competition at heart, and continues to be America’s number one.
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