The Concept of Football in America

Intro

Football has been a very important part of American culture especially in the last 50 years. Football is now the most followed by sport in America. There are many different levels that football is played. For example, there is professional, semi-pro, college, high school and pop warner. Fans from all over are passionate at each level of football. Professional and college football are by far the most popular and contains the biggest fan base. It can easily be argued that high school football has some of the most passionate fans.

Origins

The concept of football started back in the late 1800’s from what we know as rugby. In the years to come football changed more and more to how we know it today. The first official football game was played in 1869 when Rutgers and Princeton took on each other. Walter Camp, who was the Coach for Yale at that time, was the first person to develop some of the first rules and regulations to the sport. Camp came up with many of the concepts that we know today such as the system of downs, the use of eleven players down from fifteen, and the size of the field. Other rules that were implemented by Camp were the concept of the line of scrimmage, safety, and the forward pass (Bellis, 2014).

At around the same time College football was being started around the country, high schools were also getting in on the action. High school football was to be played similar to the way college football is played but with a few changes. The National Federation of High School Association (NFHS) decided to establish the rules that high schools were to follow. The NFHS decided that the lengths of quarters were going to be shortened down to 12 minute quarters rather than 15. The kickoffs were moved to the 40 yard li...

... middle of paper ...

... to drop in years to come. (Chatelain, 2013)

Conclusion

Eight-man football is an entertaining and fun sport to watch that resembles many of the same concepts as conventional eleven-man football. It is played in many small towns and smaller private schools around the country. It is a growing sport due to the fact that many small communities are growing even smaller. This is because of the fact that many people are moving out of these small town communities and into the city. Eight-man football is a great way for student athletes and schools to still get the opportunity to play football even though they may come from a smaller community. Even though eight-man football isn’t exactly conventional football it is still fun to watch and play. People who know eight-man football and played it are just as passionate about it as people who have played eleven-man football.