Football

Though beaten, bloody, and drained of energy, the two teams in competition still thirst for victory and strive to defeat their opponents. Both teams can smell victory in the air and give their all to come out on top of this football game. All kinds of emotions stir, and as the men pound at each other constantly, the crowd roars. Because of all of the intensity involved in the game, football is on of the world’s most popular sports, however, understanding the game of football is not easy. Football is a complex sport in its origin, evolution, and rules of the game.

It is said that the forerunner of American football was a game called “harpaston,” played by the ancient Greeks. Similar to modern football, the object of harpaston was to move a ball across a goal line by kicking, throwing, or running with it. However, most modern versions of football originated in England in the twelfth century. A certain form of football was known during this time, and it became so popular that it was banned because it took away from the military sport of archery. Modern football is a mixture of soccer- where a ball is kicked to opposite goals by two opposing teams and they have to defend their own goal and try to kick the ball into the opposite goal, and rugby- in which players run with the ball and tackle each other.

The first football game was known as the “Boston Game,” and was played at Harvard University. Harvard accepted a challenge from McGill University, who played a sport somewhat like English Rugby Football. In the early years of football, each team used twenty-five players at a time. In 1873, it was reduced to twenty players, in 1876 to fifteen players, and in 1880 to eleven players, where it has remained.

The modern game of football is played on a field 100 yards longs and 53.5 yards wide. Each team defends on end of the field, which is known as an end zone. The end zone is another ten yards added on to the length of the field on each side. The object of the game is to carry, pass, or kick the ball into the opposing end zone and to score. In the middle of the back of each endzone are goalposts, through where the ball is kicked to score points. This is known as a field goal, which is worth three points. Carrying or passing the ball successfully into the endzone is called a touchdown, which is worth six points. Then, the team has the opti...

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...ave evolved to hard plastic and are equipped with a protective face mask. The shoulder pads are much larger and are also made of plastic and foam, which absorbs much more of the impact. The thigh, hip knee, and tail (commonly known as butt pads) pads are made of foam and prevent the player from injured while being hit in the lower body. The equipment used today is much more safe than it was in the early days of football and has evolved for the better over the years. Football players today have much less to worry about as far as hurting while getting hit.

Football is one of the most popular sports today, and for good reasons. The intensity involved is football is unlike any other sport, and this attracts people to football. The way the game has evolved over the years also intrigues audiences to gather around to watch. The sports industry today has become a great part of entertainment in the world. Because football is a very large portion of the sports industry, it is very important to many people. Large groups of people dedicate their entire lives to the game of football and without it, the world would be a completely different place.

Sources

New World Encyclopedia 1991