American Football is a relatively new sport. Its roots are steeped in rugby and soccer, but Football developed into a sport all its own. The first-ever collegiate American Football game was played between the Universities of Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. The first recorded instance of athletes being paid to compete took place in 1892.
Football in the United States has a long history that can be traced back to early forms of rugby football and association football. Historically, both of these games have their roots in the various types of football that were played in the United Kingdom during the mid-nineteenth century, in which a ball is kicked at a goal or kicked over a line. These games evolved from variants of English public school football games that descended from medieval ball games in the early nineteenth century.
Walter Camp’s role in American Football:
It wasn’t until the 1880s that American Football became something we would easily recognize, when a Yale Rugby player, Walter Camp, pioneered many of the rules that persist to this day.
Among the other innovations pioneered by Camp were the 11-man football team, the quarterback role, lines of scrimmage, offensive signal-calling, and the scoring scale that we use today.
Formation of the NFL:
The American Professional Football Association (later known as the National Football League) was formed in Canton, Ohio, in 1920, and was instrumental in bringing the sport into the modern era.
The National Football League (NFL) grew in size and popularity over the first half of the twentieth century, and in 1970 it merged with its rival, the American Football League, to become the behemoth it is today.
The SuperBowl, which is the flagship game of the league, sees more than 200 million people tune in, making it the most-watched sporting event in the USA every year.