Rutgers University played Princeton University on Nov. 6, 1869 in the first ever game of American football. (Source: Rutgers Athletics) How it startedAmerican football used to be a much more physical game. It started as a game that primarily dealt with field position and defensive strength unlike the ideas of strategy and offensive attacks in the game today. Football seemed to incorporate elements of two sports. The running game and scrums resembled rugby and the kicking game mirrored soccer. As you can tell, games had low scores with these archaic methods of playing the game, and it had to evolve in order to stay relevant in the United States. Army playing Navy in 1916. (Source: McGraw Hill Higher Education) football nearly went extinct?No one could imagine the game of football not existing today. But, it nearly happened at the turn of the 19th century. In the early 20th century, the equipment and the rules of the game did not protect athletes nearly as much as they do today. In 1905, 19 people died from playing the sport. Yes! Died. Not injured or banged up, but passed away! These players died because of the violent collisions and lack of safety in the game. On Oct. 9, 1905, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt actually met with football representatives from Harvard, Yale and Princeton to try and figure out a solution. On Dec. 28, 1905, 62 schools convened in New York City to try to make football safer and the introduction of one idea changed the game forever. A 1906 photo from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of Brad Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass. (Source: Wikipedia) the forward passThe forward pass both transformed and saved the game of football.
It made the game safer for players and more exciting for fans to watch. Other changes afterwards like the rule of eligible receivers, the roughing-the-passer penalty and a rule stating that at least seven offensive players must be on the line of scrimmage greatly impacted the game. Star players would emerge from this new brand of football and would eventually allow for a new league to from, which I'll talk about in my next post. But I think you know which league I'm referring to.
0 Comments
|
Author
Daniel Benitez Archives
April 2020
|