Chapter 1
America's Greatest Game
IN THIS CHAPTER
Discovering why football is America's passion
Looking back on football's progression throughout the years
Figuring out how the modern football season works
Recognizing what makes college games so much fun and the Super Bowl such a major event
When I was 14, a sophomore in high school, I moved out of Boston to live with my uncle. During my first weekend in Milford, Massachusetts, I saw my first high school football game. I had never seen anything like it. Before the game, an antique fire engine led a parade on the track around the football field while the crowd clapped and cheered. The players then thundered across a wooden bridge over a pond and burst through a banner to enter the stadium. I said to myself, "Wow, this game is for me."
I wasn't necessarily drawn to the game itself; I simply loved what came with the sport: respect. For me, football was an opportunity to belong to something, giving me confidence for the first time in my life. It was more of a personal thing than it was about playing football. It wasn't so much the football but what football did for me. Football gave me a sense of self-worth, which I've carried with me throughout my life.
Sure, I experienced down periods when I first started playing, but I never thought about quitting. My first high school coach, Dick Corbin, was great to me and encouraged me to continue playing the game. Believe me, coaches are important. I've always had the support of football coaches, both on and off the field.
Football is responsible for everything that I've accomplished. The discipline and hard work that made me a successful athlete have helped me in other areas of my life, allowing me to venture into new careers in movies and television.
Why Football Is the Best
Baseball may be America's pastime, but football is America's passion. Football is the only team sport in America that conjures up visions of Roman gladiators, pitting city versus city, state versus state - sometimes with a Civil War feel, like when the Jets play the Giants in New York or the Dallas Cowboys play their longtime rivals from Washington, D.C.
Football is played in all weather conditions - snow, rain, and sleet - with temperatures on the playing field ranging from -30 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Whatever the conditions may be, the game goes on. And unlike other major sports, the football playoff system, in the National Football League (NFL) anyway, is a single-elimination tournament. In other words, the NFL has no playoff series; the playoffs are do-or-die, culminating in what has become the single biggest one-day sporting event in America: the Super Bowl.
Or, in simpler terms, anytime you stick 22 men in high-tech plastic helmets on a football field and have them continually run great distances at incredible speeds and slam into each other, people will watch.
Football has wedged itself into American culture. In fact, in many small towns across the United States, the centerpiece is the Friday night high school football game. The NFL doesn't play on Fridays simply to protect this great part of Americana, in which football often gives schools and even towns a certain identity. For example, hard-core fans know that tiny Massillon, Ohio, is where the late, great Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns began his coaching career. To this day, Massillon's high school has maintained a tremendous high school football tradition. With so many factions of the student body involved, plus their families, a strong core of fans is built. For many, this enthusiasm for football continues in college.
Millions of people are familiar with the strategy of the game, and most of them pass it down through their families. A lot of fathers coach their sons, and, increasingly these days, their daughters. Although the focus may have changed in today's society, at one time the only team that mattered in high school was the football team. The pace of the game - stoppage after every play with a huddle - is perfect for most fans because it allows them time to guess what the team will try next.
FOOTBALL IS IT IN THE UNITED STATES
Since 1937, the analytics company Gallup has been conducting polls to determine which sport is the most popular in the United States. Football has been ranked number one in every single poll since 1972. For over a half-century, between roughly 30 and 45 percent of Americans polled chose football as their favorite sport to watch. Whether you measure by TV ratings, stadium attendance figures, or total revenue, football is unquestionably the most popular spectator sport in the United States.
On two particular holidays, sitting down and watching football has become an American tradition:
- Thanksgiving Day is reserved for a turkey dinner with the family, followed by a pro football game. The Detroit Lions started the tradition in 1934, and they continue to play a game every Thanksgiving. There have been at least two pro football games on Thanksgiving Day every year since 1960, with the Dallas Cowboys also traditionally hosting a contest. And in 2006, a night game was added to cap off the holiday.
- New Year's Day has long been the day for several college football bowl games, which generally match up some of the nation's finest teams.
Who's Playing Football
Football is suited to all sizes of athletes. Larger athletes generally play on the offensive and defensive lines - what are called the trenches. Leaner athletes who are faster and quicker generally play the skill positions, such as quarterback, running back, and receiver. But no matter how big or how talented you are, you must have inner courage to play football. This game requires strength and perseverance. If you don't believe you're tough enough to play, then you probably shouldn't try.
And if you're not up to the full-force-hitting variety of football, you can still enjoy the sport as a player. Touch football is totally different from tackle football. All you need are a ball and maybe six players, three per team. Anyone can play this game, and the players decide the rules and the size of the field at the start of the game. I've seen people playing touch football on the streets of New York City and in parks and on front lawns all across America - the beauty of the game is that you can play anywhere.
Of all the team sports, football is the most violent and dangerous, with hockey a distant second. I played football for respect, and I believe that it builds character. Considering some of the problems in society today, football can give a youngster's life some structure and can also teach discipline. All the players who belong to a football team are in the struggle together, sharing in the joy and the pain of the sport. Every play can be such an adrenaline rush.
How Football Began
Just as many fans get caught up in the hype and hoopla of today's NFL, many others love the game for its sense of tradition. The game itself has endured for more than 150 years.
Games involving kicking a ball into a goal on a lined field have existed for more than 2,000 years. American football evolved from two particular games that were popular in other parts of the world: soccer (as it's known in the United States) and rugby. Both the Romans and the Spartans (remember that movie Spartacus? Now those guys were tough!) played some version of soccer. Soccer and rugby came to North America in the 19th century, and historians have noted that the first form of American football emerged on November 6, 1869, when teams from Princeton and Rutgers, two New Jersey universities, competed in a game of what was closer to rugby than football. Rutgers won that game 6-4.
The following sections introduce you to the contributions of two key individuals in the football world: Walter Camp and Harold "Red" Grange.
Camp defines the rules
Walter Camp, a sensational player at Yale University and a driving force behind many football rules, is known as the father of American football. Around 1876, when football was already being played at universities on the East Coast and in Canada, Camp helped write the game's first rules. In 1880, he authored rules that reduced the number of players per team from 15 to 11 (today's total) and replaced the rugby scrum with the center snap to put the ball in play. (In a scrum, players from both sides bunch tightly together, butting heads while the ball is thrown between them. The players then try to gain possession of the ball with their feet. Using your hands to gain possession is unique to American football - both rugby and soccer forbid it.)
Camp also championed the rule that a team needed to gain 5 yards in three plays in order to maintain possession. Today, teams must gain 10 yards in four plays. (Head to Chapter 3 for more information about these and other rules.)
Camp devised plays and formations and instituted referees. However, his biggest proposal was tackling, which was introduced in 1888. Tackling - physically forcing a player to the ground- made the game more violent. It also popularized an offensive strategy known as the flying wedge, where an entire team (ten players) would mass in...
