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Origins
The story of football began sometime during the 19 th century in England when a soccer player, frustrated at using his feet to manipulate the ball, decided to simply pick it up and run with it. With other players following suit, the sport of rugby was born. In the mid-1800's, the sport found its way to America being played by many northeastern colleges. IN 1876, Harvard and Yale met in Massachusetts in 1876 to formalize the rules to rugby but using an egg-shaped ball. An organization called the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) was created to preside over the Americanized sport. When 1920 arrived, there more than 10 professional teams across the United States . Organizers from the teams decided to meet in Canton , Ohio to form the American Professional Football Association(APFA) which later became the National Football League(NFL). The NFL further changed the rules as football began to solidify as an all-American past time. In another historic moment in football history, representatives from both the NFL and the AFL met in 1966 to agree on merging both leagues, but keeping the NFL name. Within the new league which actually began in 1970, two conferences were created that reflected the NFL's origins: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference(NFC). From then on, those two sides of the NFL were to play its best teams in a championship game later named the Super Bowl starting with the champions from the NFL and the AFL. If change was how football began, it is change that has kept the sport's popularity high. Continually, the rules governing football have evolved throughout the years to generate fan interest. For example, newly enacted rules in the 1970's promoted the risky throwing of the ball as opposed to running with it. In 1994, a greater emphasis was drawn from field goals to the two-point conversion. Completing the full circle, modern football still places fun as its top priority. |
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