When Patrick Mahomes triggered the play that got the Kansas City Chiefs a second Super Bowl in a row in Las Vegas this February, there were over 123 million people watching in the United States. That was a bigger number than the viewership of the 1969 moon landing.
American football is still the largest sport in America and is now attracting ever more international markets. The NFL is projected to generate $25 billion by 2027. There are also millions of non-professional players in the United States, especially at college and high school.
Ultimately, the origins of gridiron started back in student days when its beating heart was more in keeping with Football Association rules brought over to the U.S. during the nineteenth century. The first recorded game was played between Rutgers University and Princeton University in 1869. The two teams used a round ball that couldn’t be picked up. There were about 100 spectators looking on as Rutgers won the match 6-4.
Things changed in 1873 when a standardized set of regulations was devised by interested parties at Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers to give the game a real directive in terms of permitted plays and terminology. However, Harvard stayed out of the conversation as they preferred to play a game that involved carrying the ball rather than kicking it. There were now only 20 players allowed on each side as opposed to 25 and the pitch was smaller in dimension.
The extra nudge into a more focused sport was provided by Yale player Walter Camp, who is often called “the father of American football.” The modern game has been hugely shaped by Camp as it was his influence that created the line of scrimmage, use of downs, the points system, the snap, and the creation of the quarterback position.
The heroes of the Millennium mainstream, like Mahomes, who is very much pushing Kansas’s NFL playoff odds for three consecutive Vince Lombardi trophies, would not exist without Camp. He also commercialized much of the game, writing passionately about its merits in literature and articles. He was a man ahead of his time.
TIMELINE
1869
First recorded game of American Football takes place between Rutgers and Princeton with 25 players on each side. Rules were based on Association Football and consisted of kicking the ball into the opposition goal.
1873
Representatives of four major universities created more concrete rules with 20-a-side and a smaller pitch.
1880
Walter Camp initiates the eradication of the scrum and suggests it is replaced with a “line of scrimmage” where the team in possession has uncontested charge of the ball. He proposes each team has 11 players.
1906
Bradbury Robinson throws the game’s first-ever forward pass when he plays for Saint Louis against Carol College after it is formally written into the rules.
1922
The American Professional Football Association (APFA) is created to regulate and standardize the rules of the game. It was renamed the National Football League two tears later.
These efforts paved the way for even more changes in the early twentieth century, such as the introduction of the forward pass. Although baseball was still the national pastime, the growth of college football was becoming more apparent. At first, college football was the be-all and end-all.
However, over the next three decades, the NFL became what was considered the best version of the sport, Top college players were lined up to make the transition via drafts to the big league.
When the NFL was created just over a century ago, the comparison with the modern game was stark. There were so few teams within the league that most sides had to play against opponents that were far and wide and outside its jurisdiction. This eventually meant there was competition from other leagues set up by hungry entrepreneurs who wanted to cash in on the growing popularity of the sport. The American Football League was formed in 1960 as a rival and had some measure of success.
Ultimately, the two leagues decided to merge in 1966 with the first-ever Super Bowl taking place at the end of that campaign. The AFL was beginning to sign up the best quarterbacks and the tension was palpable as the NFL began to threaten players who moved across to what they considered an upstart rebel rival. The basic detail was that the new league would be called the NFL and be split into the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC)
Fifty-eight Super Bowls later, American Football is more popular than ever. As Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest ever coaches said: “Football is like life — it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.” That’s a legacy to be proud of.