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Admin moved page How did American football develop? to How did American football develop
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[[File:4cfa9dfc804a63675b92e458ea0e9d1c.jpeg|thumbnail|300px|left|Figure 1. Depiction of <i>Episkyros</i>]]
It is almost impossible to pick a date when American Football was invented. The invention of American football was incredibly gradual. Even though American football is a relatively young sport it has slowly developed and evolved over a long time. While we tend to think of it as a uniquely American sport, its origin and history demonstrate that it is an evolution of sports that have been played since ancient times.
====The Early History of Which games inspired American Football==?==Ball games or games involving an object a player possesses while others try to tackle or wrestle have a long history. We know of games such as <i>Harpastum</i>, which was a Roman ball game probably similar to a Greek ball game called <i>Episkyros</i> (Figure 1).<ref>For more on these early Greco-Roman games, see: Nardo, Don. 1999. <i>Greek and Roman Sport. World History Series.</i> San Diego, CA: Lucent Books.</ref> We do not know the exact rules for each of these games but it seemed to involve a ball where two teams would try to score or place the ball in a position that would register the game's points while the other team would tackle and try to prevent the other team from scoring. In essence, the basic concept is the same as sports such as rugby and American football. During this time period, the idea of using an air-filled ball developed.
Later in the Middle Ages, in Europe, different types of ball games developed where were towns or cities competing with one another. In these gamegames, which likely had different rules in various places, teams would form and a ball would be used where the goals were likely similar to <i>Harpastum</i>. This was a type of mob ball or mob football, where towns would try to win bragging rights by beating their rival towns. A few images from the Medieval period show it was a type of team sport.<ref>For more on Medieval ball games, see: Curry, Graham, and Eric Dunning. 2015. <i>Association Football: A Study in Figurational Sociology.</i> Routledge Research in Sports History. New York: Routledge.</ref> Essentially, ball -based games where people tackled each other have been around for a very long time.
==When was American Football Invented?==
In particular, the introduction of the line of scrimmage and the number of players that had to align there has its origin in this crisis. At times in the 1910s, American football was severely criticized for its excessive violence and what appeared to be overly competitive behavior that emphasized winning at all costs. World War I, however, in a way made those sentiments less important, as competition and athletics were seen as ways for men to become better soldiers. This helped to make the game once again very popular and allowed it to survive its crises years regarding safety.<ref>Watterson, John Sayle. 2000. <i>College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy</i>. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 143.</ref>
====The Emergence of When was the Modern Game==National Football League (NFL) Created?==What ultimately became the National Football League originated in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA).<ref> For more on the emergence of modern professional American football, see: Delaney, Tim, and Tim Madigan. 2009. <i>Sports: Why People Love Them!</i> Lanham, Md: University Press of America, pg. 45.</ref> Fourteen teams were the founding members but it soon expanded to twenty-two. The collegiate game, however, continued to influence how the game was played. By 1922, the NFL was formally named. By the 1930s, passing rules were modified further that which arguably made the game more like the modern one. The removal of a penalty or loss of five yards for a second incomplete pass and a loss of possession for an incomplete pass in the end zone now made passing a more important factor in American football. This helped to open up the game and subsequent rule changes helped to facilitate passing.
The 1930s saw more formal rules and procedures that further professionalized the NFL. A championship game was added in 1932. By 1941 there was a commissioner. After World War II, the NFL began to develop more teams. In 1958, the championship game was broadcast live on TV, which turned out to be a key moment for the NFL. By 1959, the newer American Football League had begun to compete with the NFL. This competition, however, eventually led to the NFL merging with the AFL, as the AFL found success in bringing high profile players. The merged system eventually formed what today are the NFC and AFC within the NFL. During that time the rules did refine, although a lot of the rules now adapted to television (e.g, timeouts), as audiences became to be a big part of the NFL's revenue.<ref>For a history of the NFL, see: Crepeau, Richard C. 2014.<i>NFL Football: A History of America’s New National Pastime. Sport and Society</i>. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.</ref>
The evolution of American football has been varied. Key influences were likely Greco-Roman games that left their mark in Europe. With the Medieval Period, those games emerged to form the beginnings of what would become rugby and soccer (or football). However, within that were the origins of American football. In the United States, it was concern over safety that led to rules that shaped what became American football and how it differed from its European counterparts (i.e., rugby and soccer). The formalization of rules and social events such as war (e.g., World War I) further shaped the sport. The rapid expansion of popularity in the early 20th century eventually led to professional teams, which served as the foundation of the modern NFL. Along the way after the founding of the NFL, rules were refined, often influenced by the medium of television.
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