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espn football

History of American footballThe history of American football, the most popular spectator sport in the United States,[1] can be traced to early versions of rugby football. Both games have their origin in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-nineteenth century, in which a ball is kicked at a goal or carried over a line. American football resulted from several major divergences from rugby, most notably the many rule changes instituted by Walter Camp, considered the "Father of American Football". Among these important changes were the introduction of the line of scrimmage and of down-and-distance rules.[2][3][4]
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, gameplay developments by college coaches such as Amos Alonzo Stagg, Knute Rockne, and Glenn "Pop" Warner helped take advantage of the newly introduced forward pass. The popularity of collegiate football grew as it became the dominant version of the sport for the first half of the twentieth century. Bowl games, a college football tradition, attracted a national audience for many teams. Bolstered by fierce rivalries, college football still holds widespread appeal in the United States.
The origin of professional football can be traced back to 1892, with William "Pudge" Heffelfinger's $500 contract to play in a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. In 1920 the American Professional Football Association was formed. This league changed its name to the National Football League (NFL) two years later, and eventually became the major league of American football. Primarily a sport of Midwestern, industrial towns in the United States, professional football eventually became a national phenomenon. Football's increasing popularity is usually traced to the 1958 NFL Championship Game, a contest that has been dubbed the "Greatest Game Ever Played". A rival league to the NFL, the American Football League (AFL), formed in 1960; the pressure it put on the senior league led to a merger between the two leagues and the creation of the Super Bowl, which has become the most watched television event in the United States on an annual basis First collegiate gamesGames that resemble football were played informally in the United States as far back as the seventeenth cenutury. The games remained largely unorganized until the nineteenth century, when intramural games of football began to be played on college campuses throughout the United States. Each school played its own variety of football. Princeton students played a game called "ballown" as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as "Bloody Monday" began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes. Dartmouth played its own version called "Old division football", the rules of which were first published in 1871, though the game dates to at least the 1820s. All of these games, and many more, shared certain commonalities. They were largely "mob" style games, with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. Rules were simple and violence and injury were common.[5][6] The violence of these mob-style games led to widespread protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale, under pressure from the city of New Haven, banned the play of all forms of football in 1860, while Harvard followed suit in 1861.[5]
"Boston game"While the game was being banned in colleges, it was growing in popularity in various New England prep schools. In 1855, manufactured inflatable balls were introduced. These were much more regular in shape than the handmade balls of earlier times, making kicking and carrying easier. Two competing versions had evolved during this time; the "kicking game" which resembled soccer and the "running" or "carrying game" which resembled rugby. A hybrid of the two, known as the "Boston game", was played by a group known as the Oneida Football Club. The club, considered by some historians as the first formal football club in the United States, was formed in 1862 by schoolboys who played the "Boston game" on Boston Common. They played mostly among themselves, though they organized a team of non-members to play a game in November 1863, which the Oneidas won easily. The game caught the attention of the press, and the "Boston game" continued to spread throughout the 1860s.[5][7]
The game began to return to college campuses by the late 1860s. Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, and Brown all began playing the "kicking" game during this time. In 1867, Princeton using rules based on those of the English Football Association.[5] The "running game", resembling rugby, was taken up by the Montreal Football Club in Canada in 1868.[3]
Intercollegiate footballMain article: College football
Rutgers v. Princeton (1869)On November 6, 1869, Rutgers University faced Princeton University in a game that is often regarded as the first game of intercollegiate football.[3][4][5][8] The game was played at a Rutgers field under Rutgers rules. Two teams of 25 players attempted to score by kicking the ball into the opposing team's goal. Throwing or carrying the ball was not allowed. The first team to reach six goals was declared the winner. Rutgers crossed the line first and went on to win by a score of 6 to 4. A rematch was played at Princeton a week later under Princeton rules (one notable difference was the awarding of a "free kick" to any player that caught the ball on the fly). Princeton won that game by a score of eight to zero. Both games, with rules based on those of Association football, bore a closer resemblance to soccer than to modern American football (or rugby). Columbia joined the series in 1870, and by 1872 several schools were fielding intercollegiate teams, including Yale and Stevens Institute of Technology.[5]
Rules standardization (1873–1880)On October 19, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Prior to this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team's own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on soccer than on rugby, was drawn up for intercollegiate football games.[5]
Harvard, which played the "Boston game", a version of football that allowed carrying, refused to attend this rules conference and continued to play under its own code. Harvard's voluntary absence from the meeting made it hard for them to schedule games against other American universities, so it agreed to play McGill University, from Montréal, in a two-game series. The McGill team traveled to Cambridge to meet Harvard in a game played under "Boston" rules, followed by a game of rugby. On May 14, 1874, the "Boston"-style game, was won easily by Harvard. The next day, the two teams played rugby to a scoreless tie, quite a feat considering that the Harvard team was unfamiliar with the game.[5]
The Rutgers College football team of 1882, wearing uniforms typical of the period.Harvard quickly took a liking to the rugby game, and its use of the touchdown which, until that time, was not used in American football. In late 1874, the Harvard team traveled to Montréal to play McGill in rugby, and won by three touchdowns. A year later, on June 4, 1875, Harvard faced Tufts University in the first game between two American colleges played under rules similar to the McGill/Harvard contest.[9] The first edition of The Games—the annual contest between Harvard and Yale—was played on November 13, 1875, under a modified set of rugby rules known as "The Concessionary Rules". Yale lost 4 to 0, but found that it too preferred the rugby style game. Spectators from Princeton carried the game back home, where it also became popular.[5]
On November 23, 1876, representatives from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia met at the Massasoit House in Springfield, Massachusetts to standardize a new code of rules based on the rugby game first introduced to Harvard by McGill University in 1874. The rules were based largely on the Rugby Union Code from England, though one important difference was the replacement of a kicked goal with a touchdown as the primary means of scoring. Three of the schools—Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton—formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, as a result of the meeting. Yale did not join the group until 1879, due to an early disagreement about the number of players per team.[2]
Walter Camp: Father of American football Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", pictured here in 1878 as the captain of the Yale Football teamWalter Camp is widely considered to be the most important figure in the development of American football.[2][3][4] As a youth, he excelled in sports like track, baseball, and soccer, and after enrolling at Yale in 1876, he earned varsity honors in every sport the school offered.[2]
Camp became a fixture at the Massasoit House "conventions" where rules were debated and changed. He proposed his first rule change at the first meeting he attended in 1878: a reduction from fifteen players to eleven. The motion was rejected at that time but passed in 1880. The effect was to open up the game and emphasize speed over strength. Camp's most famous change, the establishment of the line of scrimmage and the snap from center to quarterback, was also passed in 1880. Originally, the snap was executed with the foot of the center. Later changes made it possible to snap the ball with the hands, either through the air or by a direct hand-to-hand pass.[2]
Camp's new scrimmage rules revolutionized the game, though not always for the better. Princeton, in particular, used scrimmage play to slow the game, making incremental progress towards the end zone during each down. Rather than increase scoring, which had been Camp's original intent, the rule was exploited to maintain control of the ball for the entire game, resulting in slow, unexciting contests. At the 1882 rules meeting, Camp proposed that a team be required to advance the ball a minimum of five yards within three downs. These down-and-distance rules, combined with the establishment of the line of scrimmage, transformed the game from a variation of rugby or soccer into the distinct sport of American football.[2]
Camp was central to several more significant rule changes that came to define American football. In 1881, the field was reduced in size to its modern dimensions of 120 by 53 1/3 yards (109.7 by 48.8 meters). Several times in 1883, Camp tinkered with the scoring rules, finally arriving at four points for a touchdown, two points for kicks after touchdowns, two points for safeties, and five for field goals. In 1887, gametime was set at two halves of 45 minutes each. Also in 1887, two paid officials—a referee and an umpire—were mandated for each game. A year later, the rules were changed to allow tackling below the waist, and in 1889, the officials were given whistles and stopwatches.[2]
After leaving Yale in 1882, Camp was employed by the New Haven Clock Company until his death in 1925. Though no longer a player, he remained a fixture at annual rules meetings for most of his life, and he personally selected an annual All-American team every year from 1898 through 1924. The Walter Camp Foundation continues to select All-American teams in his honor.[10]
Expansion (1880–1904)College football expanded greatly during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. In 1880, only eight universities fielded intercollegiate teams,[11] but by 1900, the number had expanded to 43.[12] Many major rivalries date from this time period, including Alabama-Auburn, Army-Navy, and Michigan-Ohio State.
University of Michigan football game, 1902In 1879, the University of Michigan became the first team west of Pennsylvania to establish a college football team. Other Midwestern schools soon followed suit, including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota. The nation's first college football league, the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (also known as the Western Conference), a precursor to the Big Ten Conference, was founded in 1895.[13]
Led by legendary coach Fielding Yost, Michigan became the first "western" national power. From 1901 to 1905, Michigan had a 56-game undefeated streak that included a 1902 trip to play in the first college football post-season game, the Rose Bowl. During this streak, Michigan scored 2,831 points while allowing only 40.[14] Another legendary coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg of the University of Chicago, spent most of his career in the Western Conference. He coached first at the Springfield International YMCA Training School, then Chicago, and later at the University of the Pacific for a record total of 57 years. As of 2007, he still ranked seventh on the list of winningest football coaches of all time, with 314 wins.[15]
Violence and controversy (1905)From its earliest days as a mob game, football was a violent sport.[5] The 1894 Harvard/Yale game, known as the "Hampden Park Blood Bath", resulted in crippling injuries for four players; the contest was suspended until 1897. The annual Army-Navy game was suspended from 1894–1898 for similar reasons.[16] One of the major problems was the popularity of mass-formations like the flying wedge, in which a large number of offensive players charged as a unit against a similarly arranged defense. The resultant collisions often led to serious injuries and sometimes even death.[17]
The situation came to a head in 1905 when there were 19 fatalities nationwide. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to shut the game down if drastic changes were not made. One rule change introduced in 1905, devised to open up the game and reduce injury, was the introduction of the legal forward pass. Though it was underutilized for many years, this would prove to be the last—and one of the most important—rule changes in the establishment of the modern game.[18] On December 28, 1905, 62 schools met in New York City to discuss rule changes to make the game safer. As a result of this meeting, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, later named the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), was formed.[19]
Modernization and innovation (1906–1930)After the 1905–1906 reforms, which made mass formation plays illegal and forward passes legal, several coaches emerged who took advantage of these sweeping changes. Amos Alonzo Stagg introduced such innovations as the huddle, the tackling dummy, and the pre-snap shift.[20] Other coaches, such as Pop Warner and Knute Rockne, introduced new strategies that still remain part of the game.
Besides these coaching innovations, several rules changes during the first third of the twentieth century had a profound impact on the game, mostly in opening up the passing game. In 1914, the first roughing-the-passer penalty was implemented. In 1918, the rules on eligible receivers were loosened to allow eligible players to catch the ball anywhere on the field—previously strict rules where in place only allowing passes to certain areas of the field.[21] Scoring rules also changed during this time: field goals were lowered to three points in 1909[4] and touchdowns raised to six points in 1912.[22]
Star players that emerged in the early twentieth century include Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, and Bronko Nagurski; these three made the transition to the fledgling NFL and helped turn it into a successful league. Sportswriter Grantland Rice helped popularize the sport with his poetic descriptions of games and colorful nicknames for the game's biggest players, including Grange, who he dubbed "The Galloping Ghost," Notre Dame's "Four Horsemen" backfield, and Fordham University's linemen, known as the "Seven Blocks of Granite".[23]
Pop WarnerGlenn "Pop" Warner coached at several schools throughout his career, including the University of Georgia, Cornell University, University of Pittsburgh, Stanford University, and the Temple University.[24] One of his most famous stints was at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where he coached Jim Thorpe, who went on to become the first president of the National Football League, an Olympic Gold Medalist, and is widely considered one of the best overall athletes in history.[25][26] Warner wrote one of the first important books of football strategy, Football for Coaches and Players, published in 1927.[27] Though the shift was invented by Stagg, Warner's single wing and double wing formations greatly improved upon it; for almost 40 years, these were the among most important formations in football. As part of his single and double wing formations, Warner was one of the first coaches to effectively utilize the forward pass. Among his other innovations are modern blocking schemes, the three-point stance, and the reverse play.[24]
Knute Rockne As both a player and a coach, Knute Rockne brought Notre Dame's football program national recognition.Knute Rockne rose to prominence in 1913 as an end for the University of Notre Dame, then a largely unknown midwestern Catholic school. When Army scheduled Notre Dame as a warm-up game, they thought little of the small school. Rockne and quarterback Gus Dorais made innovative use of the forward pass, still at that point a relatively unused weapon, to defeat Army 35–13 and helped establish the school as a national power. Rockne would return to coach the team in 1918, and devised the powerful Notre Dame Box offense, based on Warner's single wing. He is credited with opening up the game and being the first major coach to emphasize offense over defense. In 1927, his complex shifts led directly to a rule change whereby all offensive players had to stop for a full second before the ball could be snapped. Rather than simply a regional team, Rockne's "Fighting Irish" became famous for barnstorming and played any team at any location. It was during Rockne's tenure that the annual Notre Dame-University of Southern California rivalry began. He led his team to an impressive 105–12–5 record before his premature death in a plane crash in 1931. So famous was he at that point that his funeral was broadcast nationally on radio.[24][28]
From a regional to a national sport (1930–1958)In the early 1930s, the college game continued to grow, particularly in the south, bolstered by fierce rivalries such as the "Third Saturday in October"—a rivalry between Alabama and Tennessee. While prior to the mid-1920s most national powers came from the northeast or the midwest, the trend changed when Wallace Wade's 1925 Alabama team won the 1926 Rose Bowl en route to its first national title. Because the South lacked any professional major league sports presence, college football quickly became its most popular spectator sport.[29]
The Southeastern Conference was founded in 1932Several major modern college football conferences rose to prominence during this time period. The Southwest Athletic Conference had been founded in 1915. Consisting mostly of schools from Texas, the conference saw back-to-back national champions with Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1938 and Texas A&M in 1939.[30][31] The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), a precursor to the Pacific Ten Conference (Pac-10), had its own back-to-back champion in the University of Southern California which was awarded the title in 1931 and 1932.[30] The Southeastern Conference (SEC) formed in 1932 and consisted mostly of schools in the Deep South.[32] As in previous decades, the Big Ten continued to dominate in the 1930s and 1940s, with Minnesota winning 5 titles between 1934 and 1941, and Michigan (1933 and 1948) and Ohio State (1942) also winning titles.[30][33]
As it grew beyond its regional affiliations in the 1930s, college football garnered increased national attention. Four new bowl games were created: the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, the Sun Bowl in 1935, and the Cotton Bowl in 1937. In lieu of an actual national championship, these bowl games, along with the earlier Rose Bowl, provided a way to match up teams from distant regions of the country that would not otherwise have played. In 1936, the Associated Press began its weekly poll of prominent sports writers, ranking all of the nation's college football teams. Since there was no national championship game, the final version of the AP poll was used to determine who would be crowned the National Champion of college football.[34]
The 1930s saw growth in the passing game. Though some coaches, such as General Robert Neyland at Tennessee, continued to eschew its use, several rules changes to the game had a profound effect on teams' ability to throw the ball. In 1934, the rules committee removed two major penalties—a loss of five yards for a second incomplete pass in any series of downs and a loss of possession for an incomplete pass in the end zone—and shrunk the circumference of the ball, making it easier to grip and throw. Players who became famous for taking advantage of the easier passing game included Alabama receiver Don Hutson and TCU passer "Slingin" Sammy Baugh.[35]
The Heisman TrophyIn 1935, New York City's Downtown Athletic Club awarded the first Heisman Trophy to Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger, who would also become the first ever NFL Draft pick in 1936. The trophy was designed by sculptor Frank Eliscu and modeled after NYU player Ed Smith. The trophy recognizes the nation's best college football player and has become one of the most coveted awards in all of American sports.[36]
During World War II, many college football players enlisted in the armed forces. As most of these players had eligibility left on their college careers, many returned to college at West Point, bringing Army back-to-back national titles in 1944 and 1945 under coach Red Blaik. Doc Blanchard (known as "Mr. Inside") and Glenn Davis (known as "Mr. Outside") both won the Heisman Trophy, in 1945 and 1946 respectively. On the coaching staff of those 1944–1946 Army teams was future Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi.[33][37]
The 1950s saw the rise of yet more dynasties and power programs. Oklahoma, under coach Bud Wilkinson, won three national titles (1950, 1955, 1956) and all ten Big Eight Conference championships in the decade while building a record 47 game winning streak that still stands today. Woody Hayes led Ohio State to two national titles, in 1954 and 1957, and dominated the Big Ten conference, winning three Big Ten titles—more than any other school. Wilkinson and Hayes, along with Robert Neyland of Tennessee, oversaw a revival of the running game in the 1950s. Passing numbers dropped from an average of 18.9 attempts in 1951 to 13.6 attempts in 1955, while teams averaged just shy of 50 running plays per game. Nine out of ten Heisman trophy winners in the 1950s were runners. Notre Dame, one of the biggest passing teams of the decade, saw a substantial decline in success; the 1950s were the only decade between 1920 and 1990 when the team did not win at least a share of the national title. Paul Hornung, Notre Dame quarterback, did however win the Heisman in 1956, becoming the only player from a losing team ever to do so.[38][39]
Modern college football (1958–present)Following the enormous television success of the National Football League's 1958 championship game, college football would no longer enjoy the same popularity as the NFL, at least on a national level. While both games benefited from the advent of television, since the late 1950s, the NFL has had national success while college football has had regional success.[40][41][42]
A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force AcademyAs professional football became a national television phenomenon, college football did as well. In the 1950s, Notre Dame, which had a large national following, formed its own network to broadcast its games, but by and large the sport still retained a mostly regional following. In 1952, the NCAA claimed all television broadcasting rights for the games of its member institutions, and it alone negotiated television rights. This situation continued until 1984, when several schools brought a suit under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA and schools are now free to negotiate their own television deals. ABC Sports began broadcasting a national Game of the Week in 1966, bringing key matchups and rivalries to a national audience for the first time.[43]
New formations and play sets continued to be developed. Emory Bellard, an assistant coach under Darrell Royal at the University of Texas, developed a three-back option style offense known as the wishbone. The wishbone is a run-heavy offense that depends on the quarterback making last second decisions on when and to whom to hand or pitch the ball to. Royal went on to teach the offense to other coaches, including Bear Bryant at Alabama, Chuck Fairbanks at Oklahoma and Pepper Rodgers at UCLA; who all adapted and developed it to their own tastes.[44] The strategic opposite of the wishbone is the spread offense, developed by many professional and college coaches throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Though some schools play a run-based version of the spread, its most common use is as a passing offense designed to "spread" the field both horizontally and vertically.[45]
Growth of bowl gamesGrowth of bowlgames 1930–2006[46] Year # of games 1930 1 1940 5 1950 8 1960 8 1970 8 1980 15 1990 19 2000 25 2006 32 Main article: Bowl gameIn 1940, there were only five bowl games (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Sun, and Cotton). By 1950, three more had joined that number and in 1970, there were still only eight. The number grew to eleven in 1976. At the birth of cable television and cable sports networks like ESPN, there were fifteen bowls in 1980. With more national venues and increased available revenue, the bowls saw an explosive growth throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the twenty years from 1960 to 1980, seven bowl games were added to the schedule. From 1980 to 2006, an additional 17 bowl games were added to the schedule.[46][47] Some have criticized this growth, claiming that the increased number of games has diluted the significance of playing in a bowl game. Yet others have countered that the increased number of games has increased exposure and revenue for a greater number of schools, and see it as a positive development.[48]
With the growth of bowl games, it became difficult to determine a national champion in a fair and equitable manner. As conferences became contractually bound to certain bowl games (a situation known as a tie-in), match-ups that would guarantee a consensus national champion became increasingly rare. In 1992, seven conferences and independent Notre Dame formed the Bowl Coalition, which attempted to arrange an annual #1 versus #2 matchup based on the final AP poll standings. The Coalition lasted for three years, however several scheduling issues prevented much success; tie-ins still took precedence in several cases. For example the Big Eight and SEC champions could never meet, since they were contractually bound to different bowl games. The coalition also excluded the Rose Bowl, arguably the most prestigious game in the nation, and two major conferences—the Pac-10 and Big Ten—meaning that it had limited success. In 1995, the Coalition was replaced by the Bowl Alliance, which reduced the number of bowl games to host a national champion to three—the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowls—and the participating conferences to five—the ACC, SEC, Southwest, Big Eight, and Big East. It was agreed that the #1 and #2 ranked teams would give up their prior bowl tie-ins and would be guaranteed to meet in the national championship game, which would rotate between the three participating bowls. The system still did not include the Big Ten, Pac-10, or the Rose Bowl, and thus still lacked the legitimacy that a true national championship would have.[49][47]
Bowl Championship Series Logo of the Bowl Championship SeriesMain article: Bowl Championship SeriesIn 1998, a new system was put into place, the Bowl Championship Series. For the first time, it included all major conferences (ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, and SEC) and all four major bowl games (Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta). The champions of these six conferences, along with two "at-large" selections, were invited to play in the four bowl games. Each year, one of the four bowl games would serve as a national championship game. Also, a complex system of human polls, computer rankings, and strength of schedule calculations was instituted to rank schools. Based on this ranking system, the #1 and #2 teams would meet each year in the national championship game. Traditional tie-ins were maintained for schools and bowls not part of the national championship. For example, in years when not a part of the national championship, the Rose Bowl would still host the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions.[49]
The system continued to change, as the formula for ranking teams was tweaked from year to year. At-large teams could be chosen from any of the Division I conferences, though only one selection—Utah in 2005—came from a non-BCS affiliated conference. Starting with the 2006 season, a fifth game—simply called the BCS National Championship Game—was added to the schedule, to be played at the site of one of the four BCS bowl games on a rotating basis, one week after the regular bowl game. This opened up the BCS to two additional at-large teams. Also, rules were changed to add the champions of five additional conferences (Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference and the Western Athletic Conference), provided that said champion ranked in the top twelve in the final BCS rankings.[49]
Professional footballSee also: National Football League
Early players, teams, and leagues (1892–1919)In the early twentieth century, football began to catch on among the general population of the United States and was the subject of intense competition and rivalry, albeit of a localized nature. Although payments to players were considered unsporting and dishonorable at the time, a Pittsburgh area club, the Allegheny Athletic Association, surreptitiously hired former Yale All-American guard William "Pudge" Heffelfinger. On November 12, 1892, Heffelfinger became the first known professional football player. He was paid $500 to play in a game against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. Heffelfinger picked up a Pittsburgh fumble and ran 35 yards for a touchdown, winning the game 4–0 for Allegheny. Although many observers held suspicions, the payment remained a secret for many years.[50][51][3][4]
On September 3, 1895 the first wholly professional game was played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club. Latrobe won the contest 12–0.[3][4] In 1897, the Latrobe Athletic Association paid all of its players for the whole season, becoming the first fully professional football team. In 1899, the Morgan Athletic Club, on the southside of Chicago, was founded. This team later became the Chicago Cardinals, and now is known as the Arizona Cardinals, making them the oldest continuously operating professional football team.[4]
The first known professional football league, known as the National Football League (not the same as the modern league) began play in 1902 with teams from the Mid Atlantic region. Several baseball clubs formed football teams to play in the league, including the Philadelphia Athletics and the Philadelphia Phillies. A five-team tournament, known as the World Series of Football was organized by the league. The league and the World Series only lasted two seasons.[4]
The game moved west into Ohio which became the center of professional football during the early decades of the twentieth century. Small towns such as Massillon, Akron, Portsmouth, and Canton all supported professional teams. In 1915, the Canton Bulldogs signed former Olympian and Carlisle Indian School standout Jim Thorpe to a contract. Thorpe became the face of professional football for the next several years and was present at the founding of the National Football League five years later.[4][52]
Early years of the NFL (1920–1945)
Formation Jim Thorpe, the first NFL president, shown here in his Carlisle Indian School uniformIn 1920, the first professional league, the American Professional Football Association, was founded, in a meeting at a Hupmobile car dealership in Canton, Ohio. Jim Thorpe was elected the league's first president. After several more meetings, the league's membership was formalized. The original teams were:[22][53]
Akron Pros Buffalo All-Americans Canton Bulldogs Chicago Tigers Cleveland Indians Columbus Panhandles Dayton Triangles Decatur Staleys Detroit Heralds Hammond Pros Muncie Flyers Racine Cardinals Rochester Jeffersons Rock Island Independents In its early years the league was little more than a formal agreement between teams to play each other and to declare a champion at season's end. Teams were still permitted to play non-league members. The 1920 season saw several teams drop out and fail to play through their schedule. Only four teams: Akron, Buffalo, Canton, and Decatur, finished the schedule. Akron claimed the first league champion, with the only undefeated record among the remaining teams.[22][54]
ExpansionIn 1921, several more teams joined the league, increasing the membership to 22 teams. Among the new additions were the Green Bay Packers, which is the only team in the NFL to retain the same name and home city. Also in 1921, A.E. Staley, the owner of the Decatur Staleys, sold the team to player-coach George Halas, who went on to become one of the most important figures in the first half century of the NFL. In 1922, Halas moved the team to Chicago and renamed it the Chicago Bears.[55][56]
By the mid-1920s, NFL membership had grown to 25 teams, and a rival league known as the American Football League was formed. The rival AFL would fold after a single season, but it symbolized a growing interest in the professional game. Several college stars joined the NFL, most notably Red Grange from the University of Illinois, who was taken on a famous barnstorming tour in 1925 by the Chicago Bears.[57][55]
1932 NFL playoff gameMain article: NFL Playoff Game, 1932At the end of the 1932 season, the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans were tied with the best regular-season records. To determine the champion, the league voted to hold its first playoff game. Because of cold weather, the game was held indoors at Chicago Stadium, which forced some temporary rule changes. Chicago won, 9–0. The playoff proved so popular that the league reorganized into two divisions for the 1933 season, with the winners advancing to a scheduled championship game. A number of new rule changes were also instituted: the goal posts were moved forward to the goal line, every play started from between the hash marks, and forward passes could originate from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage (instead of the previous five yards behind).[58][59][60] In 1936, the NFL instituted the first ever draft of college players. The first selection was Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger, but he declined to play professionally.[61] Also in that year, another AFL formed, but it would also last only two seasons.[62]
War yearsIn 1941, the NFL named its first Commissioner, Elmer Layden. The new office replaced that of President. Layden would hold the job for five years, before being replaced by Pittsburgh Steelers co-owner Bert Bell in 1946.[63]
During World War II, a player shortage led to a shrinking of the league as several teams folded and others merged. Among the short-lived merged teams were the Steagles (Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) in 1943, the Carpets (Chicago Cardinals and Pittsburgh) in 1944, and a team formed from the merger of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Yanks in 1945.[53][63]
Stability and growth of the NFL (1946–1957)1946 was an important year in the history of professional football. Bert Bell became commissioner of the NFL, providing a stable source of leadership for the next 13 years.[63][64] Before he became commissioner, league membership was fluid; between 1920 and 1945, 53 teams had gone defunct.[53] In 1946, the NFL had ten teams, nine of which are still in operation today.[65] The league integrated in 1946, when the Los Angeles Rams signed two African American players, Kenny Washington and Woody Strode. Also that year, a competing league, the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), began operation.[63]
During the 1950s, additional teams entered the league. In 1950, the AAFC folded, and three teams from that league were absorbed into the NFL: the Cleveland Browns (who had won the AAFC Championship every year of the league's existence), the San Francisco 49ers, and the Baltimore Colts (not the same as the modern franchise, this version folded after one year). The remaining players were chosen by the now 13 NFL teams in a dispersal draft. Also in 1950, the Los Angeles Rams became the first team to televise its entire schedule, marking the beginning of an important relationship between television and professional football.[63] In 1952, the Dallas Texans went defunct, becoming the last NFL franchise to do so.[53] The following year a new Baltimore Colts franchise formed to take over the assets of the Texans. The players' union, known as the NFL Players Association, formed in 1956.[66]
NFL supremacy (1958–present)
The Greatest Game Ever PlayedMain article: 1958 NFL Championship GameAt the conclusion of the 1958 NFL season, the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants met at Yankee Stadium to determine the league champion. Tied after 60 minutes of play, it became the first NFL game to go into sudden death overtime. The final score was Baltimore Colts 23, New York Giants 17. The game has since become widely known as "the Greatest Game Ever Played". It was carried live on the NBC television network, and the national exposure it provided the league has been cited as a watershed moment in professional football history, helping propel the NFL to become one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States.[67][66][68] Journalist Tex Maule said of the contest, "This, for the first time, was a truly epic game which inflamed the imagination of a national audience."[69]
American Football League and mergerIn 1959, longtime NFL commissioner Bert Bell died of a heart attack while attending an Eagles/Steelers game at Franklin Field. That same year, Dallas, Texas businessman Lamar Hunt led the formation of the rival American Football League, the fourth such league to bear that name. Unlike the earlier rival leagues, and bolstered by television exposure, the AFL posed a significant threat to NFL dominance of the professional football world. With the exception of Los Angeles and New York, the AFL avoided placing teams in markets where they would directly compete with established NFL franchises. In 1960, the AFL began play with eight teams, and new NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle took office.[66]
The American Football League, 1960–1970The AFL became a viable alternative to the NFL as it made a concerted effort to poach established talent from the NFL and worked hard to secure top college players. Led by Oakland Raiders owner and AFL commissioner Al Davis, the AFL established a "war chest" to entice top talent with higher pay than they would get from the NFL. Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Babe Parilli became a star for the Boston Patriots during the early years of the AFL, and University of Alabama passer Joe Namath rejected the NFL to play for the New York Jets. Namath became the face of the league as it reached its height of popularity in the mid-1960s. Davis's methods worked, and in 1966, the junior league forced a partial merger with the NFL. The two leagues agreed to have a common draft and play in a common season-ending championship game, known as the AFL-NFL World Championship. Two years later, the leagues changed its name to the Super Bowl.[70][71][72]
The NFL won the first two Super Bowls handily, and it looked as though the younger AFL was outclassed. Following the 1968 season, Super Bowl III proved to be the turning point in the AFL's fortunes. The heavily favored Baltimore Colts lost to the New York Jets and Joe Namath, cementing the AFL's place as equal in stature to the NFL. In 1970, the two leagues merged to form a new 26-team league.[70]
Modern NFL Current logo of the National Football LeagueThe NFL continued to grow, expanding several times to its current 32-team membership, and the Super Bowl has become more than simply a football championship. One of the most popular televised events annually in the United States,[1] it has become a major source of advertising revenue for the television networks that have carried it and it serves as a means for advertisers to debut elaborate and expensive commercials for many products.[73] The NFL has grown to become the most popular spectator sports league in the United States.[74]
One of the things that has marked the modern NFL as different from other major proffessional sports leagues is the apparent parity among its 32 teams.[75] While from time to time, dominant teams have arisen, such as the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s,[76] or the New England Patriots of the 2000s,[77], the league has been cited as one of the few where every team has a realistic chance of winning the championship from year to year.[75] The league's complex labor agreement with its player's union, which mandates a hard salary cap and revenue sharing among its clubs, prevents the richest teams from stockpiling the best players and gives even teams in smaller cities such as Green Bay and New Orleans the opportunity to compete for the Super Bowl.[78] One of the chief architects of this labor agreement was former NFL commisioner Paul Tagliabue, who presided over the league from 1989–2006.[79] In addition to providing parity among the clubs, the current labor contract, established in 1993 and renewed in 1998 and 2006, has kept player salaries low—the lowest among the four major league sports in the United States—[80] and has helped make the NFL the only league since 1993 not to suffer any player strike or work stoppage.[81]
Since taking over as commisioner prior to the 2006 season, Roger Goodell has made player conduct a priority of his office. Since taking office, several high profile players have experienced trouble with the law, from Adam "Pacman" Jones to Michael Vick. In these and other cases, commissioner Goodell has mandated lengthy suspensions for players who fall outside of acceptable conduct limits.[82]
Other professional leaguesSeveral other professional football leagues have been formed since the AFL-NFL merger, though none have had the success of the AFL. In 1974, the World Football League formed, and despite attracting such stars as Larry Czonka away from the NFL with lucrative contracts, the league was financially insolvent and folded after only two seasons. In 1982, the United States Football League formed as a spring league, and enjoyed moderate success during its first two seasons behind such stars as Jim Kelly and Herschel Walker. It moved its schedule to the fall in 1985, and tried to compete with the NFL directly, but it was unable to do so and folded, despite winning an anti-trust suit against the older league. In 2001, the XFL was formed as a joint venture between the World Wrestling Federation and the NBC television network. It folded after one season, and XFL stars such as Tommy Maddox and Rod "He Hate Me" Smart enjoyed limited success in the NFL.[83][84][85]
The NFL founded a developmental league known as the World League of American Football with teams based in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The WLAF ran for two years, from 1991 to 1992. The league went on a two-year hiatus before reorganizing as NFL Europe in 1995, with teams only in European cities. The name of the league was changed to NFL Europa in 2006. After the 2007 season, the NFL announced that it was closing down the league to focus its international marketing efforts in other ways, such as playing NFL regular season games in cities outside of the U.S.[86]
Two football leagues are scheduled to begin play in the near future. The All American Football League, scheduled to begin play in March or April 2008, will be based in communities with large college football followings but no NFL team.[87] The United Football League, scheduled to open in August 2008, will be a fall league in direct competition with the NFL. Involved in this league are Mark Cuban, media mogul and owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks and William Hambrecht, a prominent Wall Street investor.[88][89]
Similar codes of footballOther codes of football share a common history with American football. Canadian football is a form of the game that evolved parallel to American football. While both games share a common history, there are some important differences between the two.[90] A more modern sport that derives from American football is Arena football, designed to be played indoors inside of hockey or basketball arenas. The game was invented in 1981 by Jim Foster and the Arena Football League was founded in 1987 as the first major professional league to play the sport. Several other indoor football leagues have since been founded and continue to play today.[91]
American football's parent sport of rugby continued to evolve. Today, two distinct codes of rugby, known as rugby union and rugby league are played. Since the two codes split in 1895, the history of rugby league and the history of rugby union have evolved separately

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