Rise Of Mob Football

The rise of Football Unlike baseball it is commonly acknowledged that football drew its inspiration off of a British sport. The British sport that football gained some of its inspiration from is rugby. Although some of the inspiration came from rugby, most came from a sport not well known by Americans but was commonly played in English schoolyards known as Mob Football. Mob football is often described as a hectic or chaotic game due to the lack of rules involved. While there was a lack of rules the goal of Mob football was to carry an inflated pig bladder across a marker at opposite ends of the town. While attempting to stop the person carrying the pig bladder any action was allowed except for one that would result in murder. In addition to

During the 1890’s the popularity of football began to boom and athletic clubs began to form teams all throughout the northeast region. In 1892 in the Pittsburgh Area League a precedent was set in a game between the Alleghany Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. During this game the Alleghany Athletic Association had recruited an All-American guard from Yale to play for them. In order to get the guard to play for them the Alleghany Athletic Association agreed to pay William Heffelfinger $500 to play for their club. As a result Heffelfinger was the first professional athlete in American football. After the game between the Alleghany Athletic Association and Pittsburgh Athletic Club professional leagues began to arise throughout the

The issue that continued to reoccur was the issue of the violent nature of the sport. In the games many injuries were taking place and sometime even deaths occurred. In 1905 19 deaths had occurred as a result of the game (CITE THIS). This problem was particularly concerning even the president; Theodore Roosevelt became involved with trying to find a solution. As a result of Roosevelt advocating to lessen the amount of injuries, 62 universities gathered together to discuss rule changes to make the game safer. The outcome of this meeting was the formation of an Intercollegiate Athletic Association known as the NCAA. In addition mass formation plays were eliminated from the game such as the flying V and a new rule allowing forward passes was introduced to the