American Football Rules - Research Paper Example

American football Football, in addition to soccer and rugby, is thought to have initiated from a game in ancient Greek recognized as Harpaston.   This game is talked about very often all through classical literature, in which it is acknowledged as an “extremely brutal and violent” game.   The rules and regulations of this old sport were easy: a team will be rewarded points when a member of that team will move the ball across the rival team’s goal line through kicking running, or throwing it to a different player. The simple purpose of the opposing team was to prevent the ball from passing across their line, with any way possible.   There were no particular lengths of the field, no boundaries of the side line, no specific number of players for each team, simply an exceedingly amusing lack of regulations.   Although the ancient roots of football are in Harpaston, versions which are more modern of football are assumed to have started from England, also the real start of American football is thought to initiate with an astonishingly amusing story.   It was at some stage in England in the 19th century when a player of soccer, irritated at using just his feet to control the ball, made a decision to just pick the ball up and run with it.   Even if this act was obviously in contradiction to the rules of soccer, fans and players quickly found this latest kind of “playing” soccer attractive, and therefore, the game of rugby was started. Rugby was becoming famous all over the globe quicker than anybody would have presumed.   Public found the game utterly interesting owing to the hard-hitting type of the sport, and as it acquired fame; it almost immediately established its path to America.   Resultant of the English sport of rugby, American football was originated in 1879 with regulations introduced by Walter Camp, team member and trainer at Yale University. As stated in the book “American football”, Walter Camp was born April 17, 1859, in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended Yale from 1876 to 1882, where he studied medicine and business. Walter Camp was an author, athletic director, chairman of the board of the New Haven Clock Company, and director of the Peck Brothers Company. He was general athletic director and head advisory football coach at Yale University from 1888-1914, and chairman of the Yale football committee from 1888-1912.” He participated in playing football at the University of Yale and assisted in evolving the policies and rules of the sport different from the rules of soccer and rugby into the regulations of American Football as we recognize them at present. As stated by Ed Gruver “One precursor to Walter Camp's influence was William Ebb Ellis, a student at the Rugby School in England. In 1823, Ellis was the first person noted for picking up the ball during the soccer game and running with it, thereby breaking and changing the rules.” The initial efforts at writing down the regulations of American football were made in 1876, at the meeting of Massasoit. Walter Camp abridged all the rulebook of American Football till his demise in 1925. Walter Camp added the following alteration from Soccer and Rugby to American football: one side kept the undisputed custody of the ball, till that team let go off the ball because of its personal violations, eleven on a team rather than fifteen players, the scrimmage line, formed the center positions and quarter-back, forward pass, made the scoring system standardized, shaped the security, intrusion, the neutral zone and penalties, permitted the blocking as near to the ground as the knee can bend and lastly field goals dropped down to three points – 1912 whereas touchdown rose to six points in value. According to the views of Allison Danzing “the history of American football is the story of this fascinating game, which has challenged the minds of men of culture and action” Approximately as rapidly as it reached into America, almost every North-eastern college started their own programs for rugby. It was very soon that national football league was created. The national football league (NFL) now comprising of thirty two teams from various cities of America; has gone up to international and national reputation after more than eighty years of survival. Initially originated in 1920 having the status of the American professional football organization, the association altered its title to NFL in 1922, and ever since worked hard to be on the rise therefore it is acknowledged as the opening American football association across the world. The main break of NFL happened approximately in the year 1960s-1970s when strong opposition with the competitor American Football League (AFL) came in. In the season of 1970, nevertheless, a amalgamation with the AFL happened, significantly effecting NFL’s present composition and geographic operating expense, playing style, coverage of media, match and champion ship playoffs. As stated by Craig R. Coenen “the Super Bowl, the sport’s premier championship game, is perhaps one of AFL’s greatest influences in NFL.” Talk about the game football and depending on precisely which place an individual is one of two completely dissimilar sports may appear in mind. Individuals will imagine a mouth -smashing sport played by huge men dressed in helmets and pads on a ground with goal posts at every stop in North America. By running and passing, the ball is moved across the field. Comparatively in the majority of the remaining world football refers to a sport played by women and men clad in shorts on a playing field, or ground, with goals that netted at every end. It is a sport that mainly use the feet as the football is passed and kicked all over the pitch. According to Bob Oates “football in America began as a college sport, but soon athletic associations also got in the game. Though these early athletic clubs promoted the ideal of amateurism, it wasn’t long before clubs began offering the best players “incentives” to join their team”. American football really turned out to be the admired game with the arrival of live television transmissions. The essential centered fast-paced clash between two teams makes football the ideal sport to be telecasted at television. According to Joan Mary “The first college football game to be televised was a September 1939 match up between Fordham University and Waynesburg College.” All of a sudden fans that resided far away from the area where football was originally played could easily follow their teams. The date of birth of football in America is usually considered by historians of football as November 6, 1869, when players from Princeton and Rutgers Universities got together for the opening intercollegiate match of football. In those initial matches, there were twenty members in a team and the game in spite of everything more directly was similar to rugby comparative to modern football .The sport of football possess the past of continuous changes in rules. Rule modification or alterations have been put into practice to boost the thrill of the sport and to add to the safety of the game. Work cited: Chandler, Joan M. Television and National Sport: The United States and Britain. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. Print Oates, Bob. Football in America: Game of the Century. Coal Valley, IL: Quality Sports Publications, 1999. Print. Coenen, Craig R. From Sandlots to the Super Bowl: The National Football League, 1920-1967. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005. Print. Danzig, Allison. The History of American Football: Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1956. Print. Gruver, Ed. The American Football League: A Year-by-Year History, 1960-1969. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 1997. Print. Camp, Walter. American Football. New York: Arno Press, 1974. Print. Read More