History Of Football Essay -- Sports Football Essays History

History Of Football Sometime around 1050, Englishmen dug up a skull of a dane and started to kick it around in frustration toward the dane. It became known as Kicking the danes head .The skull began to hurt the boys feet, so a boy came up with the idea of using an inflated cow bladder to help their feet(Tuttle, 13).In 1189, King Henry banned the game, because people were as well involved in the game to practice archery and fighting for war(Tuttle, 13). During the 1500s the game shifted to Ireland where people invented the Irish rules that made the game tougher. As the game progressed it turned into soccer and rugby(Tuttle, 14).On November 6, 1869, Princeton and Rutgers played the first college soccer game(Tuttle, 14). During the spring of 1871 a group of people at Harvard University made a game called the Boston Game, which was alike to rugby rules(Tuttle, 14).On May 15, 1874, Harvard played McGill University, which was from Montreal. They played with an egg-shaped ball instead of a round ball(Tuttle, 14). They played with 11 men instead of 15, because 4 could not make the game.In 1880, Walter Camp, Yales rugby captain, created the line of scrimmage and other modern football game attributes to improve the game because it was too low make headway (Tuttle, 13). He also changed the scoring system to safety-1 point, touchdown-2, Point after touchdown-4, and a field goal-3. He then changed the yards kneeded to gain a first down to 5 and used 3 downs(Tuttle, 16). Later coaches changed Camps rules to rules we use now.In 1919 the American superior Football Association was made in Canton, Ohio(Treat, 23). It started out with 5 teams (Akron, Canton, Columbus, Dayton, and Rochester) (Treat, 23).It cost xxv dollars to open a franchise(Treat, 23). The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers joined the League in 1921 to make one of footballs greatest rivalries. The American Professional Football Association changed its name to the National Football League (NFL) in 1922(Tutt le, 61). By 1923, there were 20 teams in the NFL(Treat, 34). During the 1920s, mostly due to the depression, the NFL began to drop to entirely 12 teams(Treat, 35).In order to make the scoring increase, the NFL made it legal to throw a forward pass in 1933(Encarta). The defense rushing the play made it difficult to complete passes... ...ta), where it stopped, but started back up again in 1999.In 1992 the National Football League started making major changes toward the future. It created complete Agency, because of a lawsuit(Encarta). Free Agency allows players freedom to move around from teams after their contract. The NFL also invented the Salary Cap, which allowed NFL teams only a certain amount of money to lead on players contracts(Encarta). Both Free Agency and the Salary Cap have made it easier for teams to have the same amount of talent, and have made tremendous strides into footballs future.The demand for football has become so popular, that during televised games compani es will pay millions of dollars for thirty seconds of commercial advertisement space.Stadiums now hold tens of thousands of people. At the University of Michigan, their stadium seating more than 100,000 people. Stadiums are now built with retractable roofs and instant replay at each seat.Several indoor football leagues have started all everyplace the country, where they play with walls and 50 yards. The owner of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) is expected to open a tough football league in 2001 called the XFL.