NFL Over the Years

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The sport of football has progressed tremendously from field goals to touchdowns, players, to coaches. Football started off with one coach, and around 30 players, today there are over 100 coaches and around 150 players on each individual team. Field goals have gone from 4 points to 6 points and then down to 3, touchdowns have gone from 9 points to 7. Football has gone up and down through the years.  The history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football.  Football started to be played in Britain in the mid–19th century.  American football resulted from several major forms, from association football and rugby football, most of the rules changed, by Walter Camp, a Yale University and Hopkins School graduate considered to be the Father of American Football.  Some of the most important changes were the introduction of the line of scrimmage, of down and distance rules and of the interference rule In the late 19th and 20th centuries. The origin of professional football can be traced back to 1892, with William Pudge Heffelfinger's $500 contract to play in a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. In 1920 the American Professional Football Association was formed. This league changed its name to the National Football League, (NFL) two years later, and eventually became the major league of American football. A sport of towns in the United States, professional football eventually became a sport all over America. Modern American football begun after the 1932 NFL Playoff game, which was the first American football game to feature hash marks, the legalization of the forward pass anywhere behind the line of scrimmage, the first indoor game since 1902, and the movement of the goal posts back to goal line. Other occurred immediately after 1932, were the introduction of the AP Poll in 1934, the tapering of the ends of the football in 1934, the first NFL draft in 1936. Another important event was the American football game at the 1932 Summer Olympics, which in turn was an important factor in the growth of professional football in the United States.  American football's popularity during the second half of the 20th century can be brought back to the 1958 NFL Championship Game, a contest that has been said to be the "Greatest Game Ever Played". A rival league to the NFL, the American Football League, began play in 1960, the pressure it put on the senior league led to a merger between the two leagues and the creation of the Super Bowl, which has become the most-watched television event in the United States.