the history of football research paper
...gh illegal was usually overlooked by referees and was encouraged by members of the audience. Football has now developed into a much more organized game and there is much more sportsmanship now that in early forms of the game. The current rules of the game state that there must be seven players on the line of scrimmage, only one person can go in motion, and coaches are allowed to coach whenever they want. Players are now allowed to sub in for others as often as the coach decides. Huddles before every play is also normal for most teams. Also passing is now allowed to go forward as long as the passer is behind the line of scrimmage. These are just some of the main rules that have evolved over the years to help build football to be the way we know it today. The development of new and more efficient equipment has helped change football drastically. In the book The Way We Played the Game the author helps illustrate the outfit players wore by saying, “We screwed wood chips to our shoes to make cleats… there were also padded shirts, but players were ridiculed if they wore too much cotton padding.” (Armstrong, 231). He later goes on to say players also had leather shin guards and some wore a nose protector that was held in place my a mouthpiece. Common injuries while this equipment was standard were broken bones, gauged eyes, and severe cuts. Modern equipment consists of a large plastic helmet with padding inside and a metal facemask. Shoulder pads, hip pads, thigh pads, knee pads, and a but pad are also worn by each player. Players now rarely get injured in comparison to how football was once played. The most common injury is a muscle pull, which is much less severe than a broken femur. Playing football can begin as early as the age of nine at the present time, and different leagues are found all over the United States. These leagues start off with Pop-Warner. The age of the players in this league vary from nine to fourteen years old. Next would be high school football, and one is eligible for a maximum of four years of play. Followed by college football which is usually the farthest most people get, but some make it to the NFL. The NFL is the National Football League. The best players in the world play for this league and it is one of the most popular American sports. In 1903 football was mainly played by high school players. It was a student run league. This meant the schools didn’t help pay for equipment, coaches, or anything a team would need. Seasons were very similar to the modern season. There were regular season games and the best teams of the regular season went on to the playoffs were a team could be champions of their area. How much money one makes while playing football is now an important issue. Players have become very greedy and are paid millions of dollars a year and if the team they play for doesn’t offer them enough money a player has the option to not play. During early years of football nobody got paid, they just did it for pure fun. The coaches who were supposed to be volunteers were the only ones who sometimes were illegally paid off by supporters for a team. Armstrong writes about this by saying, “I saw Teetzel get paid off many times. I’m not sure how much he was making but I sometimes recognized the men giving him money.” (Armstrong, 117). In the 1960’s the NFL wasn’t as widespread as it is today. Therefore players didn’t make too much money. Rick Telander writes about his first paycheck in the book Like A Rose, “My signing bonus check was for $5,000.” (Telander,19). It has taken many years for football to become as wide spread as it is today, and players haven’t always been making millions of dollars per year. Coaching is also another factor of football that has changed a great deal...