(American) Football
The History Behind the Sport
The Beginning of a Hybrid Sport
- Football is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with a goalpost on each side
- American football was evolved from the sport of rugby football.
- The first game of American football was played on November 6, 1869 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Princeton vs. Rutgers
- The first college national champion was the 1876 Yale Bulldogs, whose record was 3-0
- In 1905, Theodore Roosevelt threatened to abolish the sport because mass formations as the flying wedge caused 19 fatalities in 1905 alone
1876 Yale Bulldogs - first national champion football team
The Sport gets a Professional League
- The sport was first played professionally on November 12th, 1892
- The first paid professional player was William Heffelfinger
- The National Football League was established in 1920
- Football took off in popularity following the 1958 NFL Championship game
- The American Football League arose in 1960 to challenge the NFL, but merged into the NFL completely in 1970
- Once the two leagues merged, the Super Bowl was born
William "Pudge" Heffelfinger
The first professional football player
NFL
The league's logo
The Super Bowl
The NFL's championship game
The Popularity of Football
- In a 2014 poll conducted by Harris Interactive, professional football ranked as the most popular sport in America
- Professional football is the most popular sport among people living in the eastern United States, as the most popular sport among people in the southern US
- Football is the most played sport in high school and college athletes
- The Super Bowl is the most popular single day sporting event in the US
- The most recent Super Bowl, XLIX, was watched by a record 114.4 million Americans
- The NFL makes approximately 10 billion dollars every year