Touchdown: The Power and Precision of Football's Perfect Play

Touchdown: The Power and Precision of Football's Perfect Play — page 5 — TOUCHDOWN make for a fine new game If a player was allowed to carry the ball then it only seemed fair that his opponents should be allowed to pull him to the ground And since the ballcarrier had little chance of outrunning an entire team shouldn t his teammates be allowed to protect him These rules formed the foundation of tackling and blocking The old game of foot ball soon became two new sports The kicking game turned into what we know as soccer Outside of the United States and Canada it is still called football The carrying game was called rugby after the school where it started In North America a third game developed that was a little bit of both Some called it American football American football was played mostly in boarding schools and universities During the 1800s travel could be very difficult and expensive School teams did not play against one another as they do now As a result each school made up its own rules for football At some schools it was a very violent sport At others penalties were given for rough play Two schools in New Jersey played by very similar rules Princeton University and Rutgers University were only a few miles apart For many years their students had competed over an enormous cannon left over from the American Revolution 1775 1783 The strongest boys from Princeton would sneak onto the Rutgers campus and steal the cannon The strongest boys from Rutgers would then steal it back Many injuries occurred during these pranks Princeton stopped this dangerous game by sinking the cannon into concrete Looking for a new way to compete the boys decided to hold a football contest On November 6 1869 the first football game took place between two colleges A modern football fan would barely recognize the Princeton Rutgers game There were twenty five players to a side on the field at the same time A point could be scored only by kicking the ball which was round between two posts at either end of the field A team moved the ball forward by dribbling it with the feet A player was

Touchdown: The Power and Precision of Football's Perfect Play — page 7 — In 1876 captains from several U.S. universities met to form the Intercollegiate Football Association They agreed a set of rules everyone could follow A touchdown was worth 1 point A goal kicked from the field was worth 4 points This is the origin of the term FIELD GOAL These rules meant that a player running toward the goal line would score more points by stopping and kicking the ball instead of continuing forward Imagine a running back such as Adrian Peterson sprinting for the end zone and then stopping short to boot the ball between the goalposts During the next few years the value of a touchdown changed So did the sport of football itself For a time a touchdown did not count for any points it simply gave the scoring team a free kick in front of the goal This probably was the origin of the extra point Today teams that score touchdowns get a free kick from a few yards away which is worth 1 point They can also try to carry the ball into the end zone for 2 points During the 1880s more rules were added Football started to look a little more like the modern game A coach at Yale University named Walter Camp introduced many of football s innovations Camp is considered by many to be the father of football By the end of the 1800s however football still had a way to go Most games were decided by brute force instead of exciting scoring plays Ballcarriers worked their way down the field behind a wall of blockers The blockers linked their arms and formed a V shaped wedge They trampled anyone who tried to run through them Another popular play was known as the turtleback The ballcarrier stayed inside a round shell of blockers that moved slowly down the field The only way to make 10

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.