Football, the sport American people know and love, wasn’t always the way it is today. Football was derived from the English sports, rugby and soccer. Walter Camp made the first set of rules for the game while attending Yale University. The first official intercollegiate game was between Princeton and Rutgers on November 6, 1869. Rutgers won that game 6-4.
Football is believed to have descended from the Roman game of “Harpastum.” Harpastum translates as rugby in Latin dictionaries. Harpastum is a team sport where there were 12 people on each side. They used a Pila to play, which was a hard ball that was a bit smaller than the modern soccer ball. At the beginning of the game, each team would position its players on one-half of the field. The object was to tackle the opponent who held the ball. To score points you had to keep the ball on your team’s side. …show more content…
There can be plays from scrimmage such as passes, runs, punts, or field goals. The goal of the game on offense is to pass or run the ball past the goal line to score a touchdown and then kicking the ball through the goal post for an extra point or kick a field goal through the goal post. A touchdown is worth 6 points and the extra point makes 7. A field goal is worth 3 points. The objective of the defense is to stop the offense from scoring and force them to punt.
Early football equipment was not very safe to say the least. In the early 1900’s it was rare for players to wear helmets, but when they did they had soft leather helmets that were made to just protect the ears. Players did not wear shoulder pads just to keep from being ridiculed by their teammates. Players wore pants that were made of tough canvas material with light padding sewn into the knee and thigh area. The earliest footballs were inflated pig bladders covered with leather. But when rubber was made in the mid-1800s it was used instead of pig
Football is believed to have descended from the Roman game of “Harpastum.” Harpastum translates as rugby in Latin dictionaries. Harpastum is a team sport where there were 12 people on each side. They used a Pila to play, which was a hard ball that was a bit smaller than the modern soccer ball. At the beginning of the game, each team would position its players on one-half of the field. The object was to tackle the opponent who held the ball. To score points you had to keep the ball on your team’s side. …show more content…
There can be plays from scrimmage such as passes, runs, punts, or field goals. The goal of the game on offense is to pass or run the ball past the goal line to score a touchdown and then kicking the ball through the goal post for an extra point or kick a field goal through the goal post. A touchdown is worth 6 points and the extra point makes 7. A field goal is worth 3 points. The objective of the defense is to stop the offense from scoring and force them to punt.
Early football equipment was not very safe to say the least. In the early 1900’s it was rare for players to wear helmets, but when they did they had soft leather helmets that were made to just protect the ears. Players did not wear shoulder pads just to keep from being ridiculed by their teammates. Players wore pants that were made of tough canvas material with light padding sewn into the knee and thigh area. The earliest footballs were inflated pig bladders covered with leather. But when rubber was made in the mid-1800s it was used instead of pig