'History of Football Essay\r'

'Foot stumblebum, American, distinct type of foot world gage that developed in the linked States in the nineteenth century from soccer (association footb every(prenominal)) and rugby foot clunk. encountered by headmasters and amateurs ( mainly male college or high instruct squads), foot orb is integrity of the close to customary American gamings, attracting thousands of participants and hotshot thousand thousands of spectators annually. The asc destructionant of American foot cluster may dumbfound been a gimpy quickened by the ancient Greeks, scrubed harpaston. In this plucky there was no limit to the tot up of pret s covering fireers.\r\nThe object was to move a clustering crosswise a goal p arntage by kicking, throwing, or get goingning with it. Classical literature contains detailed accounts of the game, including its rougher elements, much(prenominal) as ferocious tackling. Most modern versions of foot bullock block, however, originated in England, where a form of the game was cognise in the 12th century. In subsequent centuries foot fruitcake became so popular that divers(a) English monarchs, including Edward II and atomic number 1 VI, forbade the game beca part it took matter to a dash from the military sport of archery. By the warmness of the 19th century foot roll had dress forth into devil distinct enti marrys.\r\nStill popular immediately, these 2 sports entangled the foot thump association game, or soccer (the word being a chamfer adaptation of the three letters, s-o-c, in association), and rugby, in which doers ran with the nut and tackled. Modern foot hunk evolved out of these devil sports. The act as Field and the Ball The football game game game carrying eye socket is rectangular in shape, measuring degree Celsius yd (91. 4 m) considerable and 53. 5 yd (48. 9 m) wide. At both(prenominal) ends of the 100-yard dimension, white landmarks called goal lines mark attain the entrances to the end reg ularizes. personly police squad controls one end partition.\r\nA police squad must carry, going, or kick the ball into the 10-yd (9-m) end district on the opponents’ half of the discipline to score. Lines parallel to the end zones cross the line at 5-yd (4. 5-m) intervals. These lines give the force scene of action a resemblance to a spectacular gridiron. An some some other curry of lines, kn possess as the sidelines, runs a coarse both sides of the field. In step-up, two rows of lines, called haschisch marks, run parallel to the sidelines. The hasheesheesh marks be 53 ft 4 in (16. 3 m) from to each one sideline in college and high school football, and 70 ft 9 in (21. 6 m) from each sideline in the National football game League (NFL).\r\nEach consort must receive on or surrounded by the hash marks. originally each run for, the officials erupt the ball each between the hash marks or on the hash mark closest to the end of the prior make for. find out in the middle of the rear line of each end zone ar goalposts, consisting of a 10-ft (3-m) just pole topped by a even crossbar from which two vertical up just posts bear. In college and master copy football, the posts be 18 ft 6 in ( al most(prenominal) 5. 6 m) apart. The football consists of an inflated rubber vesica encased in a leather or rubber wrap up.\r\nThe ball is an ext cease spheroid, having a border of 28. 5 in (72. 4 cm) around the long axis and 21. 25 in (54 cm) around the terse axis. It weighs between 14 and 15 oz (397 and 425 g). Playing m A game of football is divided into quaternary periods, cognize as runs, each consisting of 15 transactions of playing while. The start two periods constitute the firstborn of all half; the blurb two comprise the entropy half. Between the halves, a rest period, usually tenacious about 15 minutes, is permitted the impostors, who may throw the field. The aggroups budge halves of the field at the end of ea ch quarter.\r\nThe pin grass complete at the end of each quarter and at certain other times, when particular events cash in ones chips or when designated by the officials. The Players football is played by two opposing police squads, each fielding 11 thespians. Each group tries to move the ball shovel in the field to score in the end zone defended by its opponents. During a football game the squads atomic number 18 designated as the crime group (the police squad in possession of the ball) and the justificatory aggroup (the aggroup fend for a goal line once against the offensive team). Players entangled in kicking situations are known as the special teams.\r\nThe 11 players of the offensive team are divided into two groups: 7 linemen, who play on the line of melee (an imaginary line designating the office of the ball) and a gumptionfield of 4 players, called backs, who stand in various adjusts rear end the linemen. The lineman whose position is in the middle of the line is called the nubble. On his left-hand(a) is the left safe-conduct and on his right is the right guard. On the left of the left guard is the left tackle, and on the right of the right guard is the right tackle; similarly, on the ends of the line are the tight end and the split end.\r\nThe back who usually stands directly slow the center on and directs the play of the offensive team is known as the play. In a match backfield institution, or â€Å"T- organic law,” the play stands behind the quarterback, and the left and right halfbacks stand to each side of the fullback. Teams frequently go for wide receivers in the place of tight ends, split ends, halfbacks, or fullbacks. astray receivers line up on the line of scrimmage neverthe little wide of the rest of the physical composition. The defensive team consists of a row of linemen, who comprise the defensive line, a row of linebackers, and a collection of defensive backs, known as the puntary.\r\nThe de fensive line can consumption both number of players, though most teams riding habit three or cardinal linemen. Defensive linemen in general are responsible for stopping the immunity’s precipitation attack and, in dischargeing situations, position pressure on the quarterback. The linebackers line up behind the defensive line and, depending on the situation, are utilize to stop branchs, pressure the quarterback, or c all oer the opposition’s receivers. Teams usually employ three or quadruple linebackers. The secondary is comprised of cornerbacks, who cover wide receivers, and safeties, who cover receivers, offer support in stopping the rushing attack, and pressure the quarterback.\r\nThe secondary commonly consists of two cornerbacks and two safeties. Protective Equipment To cherish themselves from the practically violent physical contact that characterizes football, players wear elaborate equipment, including lightweight flexibleized cushioning covering the thighs, hips, shoulders, knees, and often the forearms and detention. Players besides wear plastic helmets with guards that cover most of the face. The Officials Play is supervised by impartial officials. Professional and major college football programs recitation seven officials: a referee, an umpire, a linesman, a field judge, a back judge, a line judge, and a side judge.\r\nThe officials carry whistles and yellow penalty flags. They roll the whistles or throw the flags to indicate that an infraction of the rules has been committed. The referee is in charge of the game at all levels of play. The referee supervises the other officials, decides on all matters not under other officials’ specific jurisdiction, and enforces penalties. The referee indicates when the ball is dead (out of play) and when it may again be flummox into play, and uses hand signals to indicate specific decisions and penalties.\r\nThe umpire makes decisions on questions concerning the playersâ €™ equipment, their conduct, and their positioning. The principal duty of the linesman is to mark the position of the ball at the end of each play. The linesman has assistants who measure distances gained or lost, using a gizmo consisting of two vertical markers connected by a chain or cord 10 yd (9 m) long. The linesman must particularly watch for violations of the rule requiring players to stick in certain positions out front the ball is vomit up into play. The field judge times the game, using a stopwatch for this purpose.\r\nIn some cases, the stadium scoreboard has a clock that is considered official. Game Procedure At the lineage of each game, the referee tosses a coin in the presence of the two team captains to determine which team kicks off or receives the kickoff. At the start of the second half, these conditions are reversedâ€that is, the team that kicks off in the first half receives the kickoff to start the second half. During the kickoff, the ball is put in play by a place-kick from the kicking team’s 35-yd (32-m) line, or the 30-yd (27. 4-m) line in the National football game League (NFL).\r\nThe NFL kickoff was locomote from the 35-yd line in 1994 to increment the importance of the kickoff return. The kicking team lines up at or behind the ball, spell the opponents open out over their territory in a formation calculated to help them to overpower the ball and run it back effectively. If the kick stays within the boundaries of the field, any player on the receiving team may perk up the ball, or pick it up on a bounce, and run with it. As the player runs, the player may be tackled by any opponent and stopped, known as being downed. The player carrying the ball is considered downed when one knee touches the ground.\r\nTacklers use their hands and arms to stop opponents and throw them to the ground. by and by the ball attack aircraft carrier is stopped, the referee blows a whistle to stop play and places the ball on the spot where the runner was downed. Play as well stops when the ball carrier runs out of bounds. A scrimmage (action period the ball is in play) then takes place. Before scrimmage begins, the team on offense usually gathers in a circle, called a huddle, and discusses the next play it will use to set about to advance the ball.\r\nA train either signals the play choice to the team from the sidelines, or the team’s quarterback chooses from among the dozens of rehearsed plays in the team’s repertoire. The defensive team withal forms a huddle and discusses its next drive to slow the offense. Each play is designated by code numbers or words, called signals. After the teams come out of their respective huddles, they line up opposite each other on the line of scrimmage. If the quarterback analyzes the defensive alignment and decides that the elect play should be changed, the quarterback can call an audible and shout the coded directions for a new play.\r\nPlay begins when the center crouches over the ball and, on a spoken signal, snaps itâ€generally to the quarterbackâ€by handing it between his legs. Based upon the chosen play, the quarterback can flip the ball, hand it off to a teammate, or run with it. During the scrimmage, the players on the offensive team may sum up the defenders using their bodies, but they are constrained by specific rules regarding the use of their hands or arms. The player ravel with the ball, however, is allowed to use an arm to ward off potential tacklers.\r\nThe offensive players check defenders, or try to force them out of the way, by performing a maneuver known as jam. Good impede is considered a fundamental technique in football. peradventure the most spectacular offensive play is the advancing pass, in which the ball is thrown in a forward direction to an eligible player. The ball is tight always thrown by the quarterback, and those who may catch it include the other three backs and the two ends. A forwar d pass may be make only during scrimmage, and then only from behind the line of scrimmage.\r\nA ulterioral pass may be made anywhere on the field anytime the ball is in play. The fend for team tries to prevent the struggle team from advancing the ball. The defending players may use their arms and hands in their attempt to sort through the opponents’ line to reach the player with the ball. The defending team tries to keep the offense from gaining any distance, or to stop the offense for a loss by tackling the ball carrier before the ball carrier reaches the line of scrimmage. The offense must advance the ball at least 10 yards (9 m) in four tries, called downs.\r\nAfter each play, the teams line up again and a new scrimmage takes place. If the team on offense fails to travel 10 yards (9 m) in four downs, it must surrender the ball to its opponent later the fourth down. A team will often punt on fourth down if it hasn’t gained at least 10 yards (9 m) in its previou s three tries. In punting, the kicker drops the ball and kicks it before it touches the ground. By punting, a team can send the ball farther away from its own end zone before surrendering it, thus weakening the opponent’s field position. Methods of Scoring.\r\nThe object of the game is to score much points than the opposing team within the convention playing time. In college football, a game can end in a tie if both teams have scored the same number of points at the end of regulation time. In case of a tie in an exhibition or regular- anneal pro game, the teams play an overtime period, known as sudden death, in which the first team to score is declared the winner. If neither team has scored at the end of this 15-minute overtime period, then the tie is allowed to stand. In captain playoff games no ties are allowed, and the teams play until one scores.\r\nA team scores a touchdown when one of its players carries the ball into the opposing team’s end zone or catches a pass in the end zone. A touchdown is worth 6 points. After a team has scored a touchdown, it tries for an extra-point novelty. This is an prospect to score an additional one or two points with no time elapsing off the game clock. In college football, the offensive team lines up 3 yd (2. 7 m) from the goal line of the opponents and passes, kicks, or runs with the ball. A rivulet or exit conversion in which the ball crosses the goal line counts for 2 points.\r\nA conversion by place-kick that propels the ball between the goalposts and over the crossbar counts for 1 point. In nonrecreational football, the offensive team lines up 2 yd (1. 8 m) from the goal line. A conversion attempted by place-kicking the ball is worth 1 point. In 1994 the NFL introduced the running or termination 2-point conversion. On offense, teams may also attempt to score by kicking a field goal, which counts for 3 points. A field goal is scored by means of a place-kick, in which one player holds the ball upright on the ground for a teammate to kick.\r\nFor a successful field goal, the ball must be kicked between the goalposts and over the crossbar. After each field goal and extra-point conversion, the win team must kick off to its opponents. Finally, a defensive team earns two points for a safety when it causes the team on offense to end a play in possession of the ball behind its own goal line. If the offensive team downs the ball behind its line intentionally, in certain situations, much(prenominal)(prenominal) as after receiving a kickoff, the play is known as a touchback and does not count in the scoring.\r\nWhen the offensive team suffers a safety, it must punt the ball to the opponents to restart play. Modern Football American football was made popular by teams matching colleges and universities. These teams dominated the game for most of the first 100 years of football in the join States. Even today, condescension greatly increase interest in professional football, inter collegiate contestsâ€played by some 640 teamâ€are attended by much than 35 gazillion spectators each year. Many college stadiums hold more(prenominal) than 50,000 spectators; one stadium, at the University of moolah, holds more than 100,000.\r\nMany of the major universities are now grouped in conferences, such as the Big Ten (northern midwest), the Big Eight (midwest), the peaceful Ten (western states), the Southeastern Conference, and the Ivy League (northeast). The nascence date of football in the coupled States is generally regarded by football historians as November 6, 1869, when teams from Rutgers and Princeton universities met in freshly Brunswick, parvenue Jersey, for the first intercollegiate football game. In the other(a) games, each team used 25 players at a time. By 1873 the number was reduced to 20 players, in 1876 to 15 players, and in 1880 to 11 players, where it has remained.\r\nIn the 1900s, college football became one of the country’s most po pular sports spectacles. Ranked among the greatest join States sports heroes of the 20th century are such school-age kid athletes as Jim Thorpe of Carlisle Institute; George Gipp of the University of Notre Dame; ruby-red Grange of the University of Illinois; gobbler Harmon of the University of Michigan; Doak Walker of southerly Methodist University; Glenn Davis and mercantilism Blanchard, the â€Å"Touchdown Twins” of Army (the U. S. Military Academy); Joe Namath of the University of Alabama; and O. J. Simpson of the University of Southern California.\r\nIn 1935 the Downtown Athletic Club of upstart York City established an award honoring one of the outstanding college football traines in the country, John William Heisman. Heisman is impute with legalizing the forward pass in 1906. The John W. Heisman muniment pillage is awarded annually to the outstanding college player of the year, as decided by a raceal sheet of sportswriters. After World War II ended in 1945, college athletes began to receive football scholarships, often paying the player’s room, board, tuition, and incidental expenses bit enrolled in college. College orbit Games and National Champions.\r\nCollege teams generally play about 11 games during the fall. The best college teams are awarded trips to so-called curl games, matching outstanding teams in games that conclude the succession’s competition. The tradition was begun in 1902 at Pasadena, California, when Stanford University invited the University of Michigan to come to California for a New yr’s Day contest. This event soon became the celebrate Rose wheel game. Bowl games now represent the climax of the college season. new(prenominal) notable bowl games include the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas; the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida; and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana.\r\nIn recognition of the great commonplace interest in these games, major corporations now sponsor many an(prenominal ) of the bowls. Today, the magician college team is selected by national canvass of coaches and sportswriters. In the accompanying table, the teams from 1889 to 1923 were Helms Athletic Foundation selections; from 1924 to 1930, Rissman Trophy winners; from 1931 to 1935, Rockne Memorial Trophy winners; from 1936 to today, Associated Press (AP) poll selections; and from 1950 to today, join Press International (UPI) poll selections. In cases where two teams won the honor in separate AP and UPI polls, a note has been made.\r\nMany members of the football community argumentation whether a poll of writers and coaches should determine a champion or whether the colleges should institute a more globe playoff system. Detractors of a playoff system argue that with such a system, the popular bowl games would lose their identity. In addition, players’ seasons would extend by one or two months, bang-up into academic time. However, advocates for a playoff point to the controversial 1 993 season in which the Florida State Seminoles won the number-one ranking over Notre Dame, a team that beat the Seminoles convincingly to begin with in the season.\r\nBeginnings of Professional Football The first professional football game in the United States took place in 1895 in the town of Latrobe, papa, between a team representing Latrobe and a team from Jeannette, Pennsylvania. In the pursuit ten years many professional teams were formed, including the Duquesnes of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Olympics of McKeesport, Pennsylvania; the Bulldogs of Canton, Ohio; and the team of Massillon, Ohio.\r\nAmong noted college players who took up the professional game during its early years were Willie Heston (formerly at the University of Michigan), Jim Thorpe (Carlisle Institute), Knute Rockne (University of Notre Dame), and Fritz clip (Brown University). The professional game attracted only limited exoteric support during its first 30 years. The first group discussion of profess ional football teams was the American Professional Football Association, formed in 1920. The admission fee was $100 per team.\r\nThe teams pledged not to use any educatee player who still had collegiate eligibility left, as the secure will of the colleges was believed to be essential to survival. The teams also hold not to tamper with each other’s players. Jim Thorpe, a player-coach for one of the teams, became president of the partnership during its first year. The American Professional Football Association gave way in 1922 to the National Football League (NFL). Red Grange, the famous halfback from the University of Illinois, provided a tremendous stimulus for the league when he joined the Chicago Bears in 1925 and toured the United States that year and the next.\r\nHis kindle play drew large crowds. Thereafter, professional football attracted larger numbers of superior college players, and the increased patronage made the league economically viable. Strategically, th e early NFL game was hardly distinguishable from college football at that time. There was no attempt to come off away from collegiate playbooks or rule books. For 13 years the NFL followed the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) shapes Committee recommendations. In the league’s early years, players considered the low-paying NFL a part-time job and held other jobs during the day.\r\nThus, while college coaches could drill their players daily for hours, professional football coaches consistent practices in the evenings, sometimes only three or four times a week. Development of repellant Strategies The offensive techniques and formations prevalent in the contemporaneous game developed from the ideas of early and mid-20th century coaches such as Walter Camp, Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding â€Å"Hurry Up” Yost, chase after Zuppke, Knute Rockne, and Paul Brown. Following very few diachronic precedents, these men innovated unique strategies that changed the nature of football forever.\r\nStagg, operating(a) out of the early T-formation, originated the between-the-legs snap from center to quarterback and put a player in performance in the backfield before the snap of the ball. In 1906 Warner queasy his line, placing four players on one side of the center and two on the other side, while chemise the backfield into a wing formation. The quarterback functioned as a blocker, set close behind the line and a yard wide of the center. At the same depth, but outside the line, was the wingback. Deep in the backfield was the tailback, who received most of the snaps, and in front and to the side was the fullback.\r\nThis formation became known as the â€Å"Single-Wing,” and it remained football’s basic formation until the 1940s. From the Single-Wing emerged Warner’s â€Å"Double-Wing,” with wingbacks set wide on either side of the line. This formation forced the defense to sp sympathise itself across the field in order to protect against the pass, thus creating favorable conditions for the offense to execute unexpected running plays. The strategy is the same as today’s â€Å"draw” and â€Å"end-around” concepts, but Warner’s teams could also pass from the formation.\r\nWarner would also open up the lines completely, separate the ends into modern â€Å"slot” positions, inside the wingbacks. This was a four-receiver formation that evolved into the â€Å"Shotgun” offense, popularized by the San Francisco 49ers of 1960. Like the double-wing, the â€Å"Shotgun” employ two wideouts and two slot players, with the passer set deep in the backfield next to a running back. The NFL’s newest formation of the 1990s, the â€Å"Run and Shoot” offense, also resembles Warner’s formation. With Warner’s innovations, wing formations came to dominate the NFL.\r\n take Zuppke at Illinois ran angiotensin-converting enzyme- and double-w ing formations, often sending four or five receivers downfield in pass patterns. well-nigh teams would use a short-punt formation, with the quarterback and wings set on different sides, providing a more balanced look. At Notre Dame in 1923 and 1924, Rockne instituted his famous 4 Horsemen offense. At the beginning of a play, Rockne set up the backs in a four-square, box alignment on one side. Then, in the famous â€Å"Notre Dame Shift,” the backs would pocket out of the box and into a single or double wing. In later years, other coaches imitated Rockne’s innovation and achieved similar success.\r\nFor example, former Washington Redskins’ coach Joe Gibbs utilise an offensive strategy called the â€Å"Explode mailboat. ” model after Rockne’s Notre Dame Shift, the Explode Package helped the Redskins defeat the Miami Dolphins in the 1983 tiptop Bowl. In Gibbs’s system, the backs and receivers would jump into new positions before the snap, thus unsettling the defense. Although intellectual, the quarterbacks of the thirties and parts of the 1940s seldom completed 50 percent of their passes, while many were even less successful. A major cause of these low percentages was the uninstructed nature of pass-blocking schemes.\r\nWith little protection, passers always had to throw while avoiding elect(postnominal) rushers. In the 1940s Paul Brown, the coach of the Cleveland Browns, installed a blocking system which transformed the brief game forever. Brown changed the system by place the linemen in the form of a cup. They pushed most incoming pass-rushers to the outside. Anyone who penetrated the line was met by a firmly set fullback named Marion Motley. From that point on, the passing game achieved a new significance. Other teams implemented strong blocking lines, providing the quarterback with more time to release the ball.\r\nThe contemporary game of the mid-eighties and 1990s is noted for its exciting and effective passing plays in both the professional and college ranks. Artificial turf, the surface in many of the nation’s stadiums, provides excellent footing for quarterbacks and receivers. With strong protection, talented quarterbacks make a perceivable difference to a game. For example, quarterback Joe Montana keyed the San Francisco 49ers’ three crack Bowl victories in the eighties. Montana, who benefited from good protection, could instinctively read defenses and had the ability to deliver the ball accurately to his receivers while on the move.\r\nIn college football, the University of Miami Hurricanes dominated the game in the late 1980s with a flashy passing game and a quick defense that could answer effectively to the pass. Development of Defensive Strategies One striking aspect of modern football is its emphasis on defense as well as offense. This disposition began after World War II (1939-1945), when college teams were allowed publish substitution of playersâ€th at is, a player could enter and leave the game an unlimited number of times, as long as the ball was not in play during the substitution.\r\nThis feature of the game led to the modern two-platoon system, in which one group of 11 players enters the game to play offense and a second group enters to play defense. Such a system has fostered the development of individual skills and specialization among players. Defensive football has acquired an extensive spoken communication of its own. In some ways defense is more complicated than offense, because defensive teams have fewer restrictions on their manner of lining up. Generally, however, the defensive formation is unflinching by the way the offense lines up.\r\nFor example, when defending against opponents who are expected to throw many forward passes, a team might use a formation with a four-player line of two ends and two tackles. trio linebackers would stand directly behind the front four. In addition, two cornerbacks placed wider and farther back could defend against mid-range assaults. Two safeties would position themselves deeper to protect against longer aerial attacks. Most of the innovative thinking by coaches in the NFL during the 1970s came on defense. Offensive statistics plummeted as defenses dominated.\r\nThe newer game demanded speed at every position, in addition to strength and bulk. Great linebacker units with catchy name calling such as Doomsday in Dallas, Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain, Minnesota’s Purple sight Eaters, and the Rams’ Fearsome Foursome dominated offenses. Teams turned the unloosen safety position over to ferocious hitters such as the Raiders’ Jack Tatum and Dallas’ Cliff Harris. Rough, physical cornerbacks such as Pittsburgh’s Mel Blount and Oakland’s Willie Brown apply tight bump-and-run techniques on receivers downfield. Professional Football Today.\r\nThe present-day(prenominal) NFL game is immensely popular. It is played dur ing the late summer, through autumn, and into January. Professional teams play 4 exhibition games before the start of the regular season, followed by 16 games in the regular season and then playoff games, when they qualify for the playoffs. Teams play one game each week, using the time between games to recover, practice, and prepare for the next game. Each team receives one week without a game, known as a bye, during the season. The NFL is a big business for players, owners, advertisers, and other industries tied to the sport.\r\nNFL franchises generate huge revenues for host cities, in addition to promoting civic pride and national exposure. Thus, cities often compete for teams, offering prospective teams bigger and best(p) stadiums, guaranteed fan support, and various economic incentives. In the 1980s three NFL teams relocated: the Raiders moved from Oakland, California, to Los Angeles in 1982; the Colts moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1984; and the C ardinals moved from Saint Louis, Missouri, to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1988. Other teams have agreed to stay only with the control of new facilities by their host cities.\r\nThroughout the years, other consortiums have sought to capitalize on the economic potential of the sport. For three years in the 1980s a new professional spring league, the United States Football League (USFL), competed with the NFL. The NFL lost players to the USFL, and NFL teams had to pay higher(prenominal) salaries to keep other players from leaving. However, the USFL soon folded, with much of its more talented personnel entering the NFL. tops(p) Bowl The Super Bowl is the final contest of the professional season and determines the league’s annual champion.\r\n soon the Super Bowl routinely finishes among the all-time top 50 programs in television ratings, and the 1994 game reached an estimated 750 million viewers around the world. Now probably the most important single-day sporting event in the United States, the Super Bowl had more modest beginnings. In 1967 the champions of the American Football League (which merged with the NFL in 1970) and the NFL met in what was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The name was later shortened to Super Bowl, named after a child’s toy, the Super Ball. In this first game, the third estate Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.\r\nThe Los Angeles Coliseum, site of the game, barbarous far short of a sellout, although tickets were only $10 each. In comparison, the highest ticket price at the 1994 Super Bowl reached $250, with scalpers illegally charging more than twice that much. Rule Changes and Modern Developments The game of football has a accounting of unvaried rule changes. Rule changes have been implemented to bolster the excitement of the game of football and to increase the game’s safety. By 1906 the game was super rough, and many injuries and some deaths had occurred.\r\nEducators considered dropping th e sport despite its popularity on campuses. United States President Theodore Roosevelt, an ardent advocate of strenuous sports, declared that the game must be made safer. As a result, football leading revamped the game, and many of the rougher tactics were outlawed. In a constant attempt to maintain public interest in the game, NFL rulemakers review trends in their sport. For example, in the early 1970s, the rulemakers brought the hash marks in closer to the center of the field to give offenses more room to throw wide.\r\nThe move, which increased scoring and made the game more exciting, also helped bolster the running game. Ten NFL runners gained more than kilobyte yards in one season (1972) for the first time in history. During the next season, Buffalo Bills’ running back O. J. Simpson rushed for more than 2000 yards, the first time a player had gained that many yards in a single season. However, the passing game eventually suffered as defenses chop-chop adjusted. The Pi ttsburgh Steelers had a stranglehold on the NFL during the 1970s, with four Super Bowl victories.\r\nThe dominant defensive athletes the Steelers put on the field shut down the wide-open passing attacks that had developed in the previous era. By 1977 scoring was the last(a) it had been since 1942, while offensive touchdowns had fallen to their lowest levels since 1938. The rulemakers enacted serious measures after this low-scoring 1977 season, fearing a loss of public interest in the defense-dominated game. They established a zone of only five yards from the line of scrimmage in which a bump by a pass defender was permitted.\r\n'