American football
Development of the game
American football in its current form grew out of a series of three games
between Harvard University and McGill University of Montreal in 1874. McGill
played by the Rugby Union code while Harvard played the Boston Game, which
was closer to Association Football. As often happened in those days of far
from universal rules, the teams alternated rules so that both would have a
fair chance. The Harvard players liked having the opportunity to run with
the ball, and in 1875 persuaded Yale University to adopt Rugby Union rules
for their annual game. In 1876 Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia formed
the Intercollegiate Football Association, which used the Rugby Union code,
except for a slight difference in scoring.
In 1880 Walter Camp introduced the scrimmage in place of the rugby scrum. In
1882 the system of downs was introduced to thwart Princeton's and Yale's
strategy of controlling the ball without trying to score. In 1883 the number
of players was reduced, at Camp's urging, to eleven, and Camp introduced the
soon standard arrangement of a seven-man offensive line with a quarterback,
two halfbacks, and a fullback.
On September 3, 1895 the first professional football game was played, in
Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic
Club. (Latrobe won the contest 12-0.).
By the 1890s interlocking offensive formations such as the flying wedge had
made the game extremely dangerous. Despite restrictions on the flying wedge
and other precautions, in 1905 eighteen players were killed in games.
President Theodore Roosevelt informed the universities that the game must be
made safer.
In 1906, two rival organizing bodies, the Intercollegiate Rules Committee
and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association, met in New York; eventually
they agreed on several new rules intended to make the game safer, among them
the addition of a neutral zone between the scrimmage lines and a requirement
that at least six players from each team line up on them. The most
far-reaching innovation they considered, though, was the legalization of the
forward pass. This was very controversial at the time, much derided by
purists. As an alternative means of opening out the play, Walter Camp would
have preferred widening the field; but representatives from Harvard pointed
to recently constructed Harvard Stadium, which could not be widened, and the
forward pass was adopted; it has come to shape the whole history of American
football, as opposed to its cousins around the world.
In 1910, after further deaths, interlocking formations were finally
outlawed; and in 1912 the field was changed to its current size, the value
of a touchdown increased to 6 points, and a fourth down added to each
possession. The game had achieved its modern form.
Beyond recreation and entertainment
Football and drugs
Contemporary football players are larger than their predecessors of only 30
or 40 years ago. It is quite normal, for instance, for all the members of
the offensive line of a major college or professional team to weigh more
than 300 pounds (136 kg.), whereas in the 1960's linemen who weighed only
270 pounds were common. The increase in player size has led to a increase in
the frequency and severity of injuries.
Since nutritional standards and weight-training technique were already quite
advanced even in the 1960's, it has been conjectured that much of the
increase in the size of the players is the result of the widespread
availability of illegal anabolic steroids, which facilitate increased growth
of muscle tissue. Such drugs are widely available even to high school
players.
Because anabolic steroids have dangerous side effects, the National Football
League tests its players for steroids, and penalizes those who are caught.
However, it has recently emerged that new varieties of steroids are being
developed in clandestine laboratories, which elude existing drug tests.
Hence there is a kind of "arms race" between the scientists who develop new
kinds of illegal steroids and those who develop tests to detect them.
Injuries
Despite the helmets and heavy padding worn by all players on the field,
injuries are common in football. An "Injury Report" section is ubiquitous in
American newspapers' sports sections, detailing, for each injured player on
each team, his injury and the amount of time he is expected to be out.
Twice-weekly during the season (Wednesdays and Fridays), all NFL teams must
report the status of their injured players, or be subject to a fine from the
league. The standard severity descriptions are "out" (will not play in the
coming game); "doubtful" (25% chance of playing); "questionable" 50% chance
of playing); or "probable" (75% chance of playing). Note that teams
occasionally manipulate their injury reports, minimizing or maximizing the
extent of a player's injury, as an attempt to strategically deny their
upcoming opponents a clear picture of the team's health. Similar systems are
in place for most major American sports.
The NFL has a roster limit of 53 players per team during the season; 45 of
which dress for a game plus an "emergency quarterback" who only plays if all
the quarterbacks on the 45-man roster are out of the game. Players who are
injured are frequently among the eight that do not dress. If it becomes
certain that a player will not play for the rest of the season, the team may
put him on the "Injured Reserve" list and replace the player on the roster.
An average of about eight players die each year in the United States as a
result of injuries received in games at all levels. About 160 concussions
occur every season, and the National Football League now collects benchmark
measures of awareness for each player, which can be used during a game to
judge whether he has been concussed.
Injuries sustained by football players often are permanent. Many former
football players experience pain, sometimes severe, that lasts for the rest
of their lives. Many players require surgery, even multiple surgeries, for
injuries experienced years earlier.
Interestingly, newspaper reporters who have interviewed former football
players who are crippled or in pain as a result of their former sport find
that a player will never (or virtually never) express regret over his choice
of career. The players often state that the thrill of playing football was
worth the price of a lifetime of subsequent pain.
Deaths and long-term disability attributed to illegal use of anabolic
steroids have become a new factor in this picture, starting in about the
1990s.
Instances of heat-related death, especially during professional practice
sessions, have begun receiving press attention in the decade of the 2000s,
and led to new standards intended to respond cautiously to possible danger
signs that traditionally had been ignored. There is also the prospect that
conventional first-aid technique has been in error, and an apparatus to
circumvent this: apparently efforts to cool an overheated patient quickly,
by wetting a large fraction of the body, are misguided, with the sudden
chilling of the skin causing the body to reduce superficial circulation, and
making that chilling near the surface ineffective at cooling the core of the
body and thus the brain. A device suitable for professional teams has been
developed, that provides for rapid cooling of small areas of skin where
large blood vessels are near the surface, and is proposed as a means of
cooling the blood quickly without evoking the reflex of isolating the body
surface from the core.
What's it all about?
Football is in many ways a sport apart, among those traditional in America.
George Carlin has monologized at length on its contrasts with baseball,
which is traditionally called "the American pastime": Football is about
"ground control" and played on a "gridiron" of exact dimensions, while
baseball is about "going home", and played in "parks" that are all different
from one another, and so on. Such observations, however humorous, would be
widely regarded as at least hints about some of the nature and significance
of the game.
Character building
It is a widespread American doctrine that participation in team sports,
including football in particular, inculcates worthwhile habits and values in
the players. Leadership (at least for quarterbacks and exemplary players),
identification with a group, aggressiveness where called for, the setting of
personal goals, and sustaining commitment to these, are often mentioned.
Football scandals
There is a long history in the second half of the 20th century of
controversy over the tension in college football between values important to
the institutions' academic missions and the team's win-and-loss record. Many
observers attribute to football skill a excessive role in winning admission
for prospective players; they by and large regard this as an ongoing
scandal. Measures that are seen as effective in maintaining players'
academic eligibility but not in furthering their graduation or competence in
their fields of study attract similar criticism.
In the decade of the 2000s, the increasing economic stakes in sports,
changed attitudes outside football regarding acceptable behaviour towards
women, and the perception of uncontrolled use of steroids, all have played a
part in an increase in public concern about football's role. Many suggest
that the status and other rewards accruing to players encourages arrogance
in general, and in particular, both an assumption of privilege and an
expectation of immunity from consequences. It is also suggested that
steroid-using players are markedly more aggressive both on and off the
field, their teammates and opponents grow accustomed to excessive
aggression, and both groups are predisposed to treat women they encounter,
especially in the presence of their sports colleagues, in a disrespectful,
aggressive, and sometimes sexually coercive manner.
This issue came to a head early in 2004 during a series of sex scandals that
rocked the football program at the University of Colorado. The school's head
football coach, Gary Barnett, in responding to the charge by his only female
player that a teammate had raped her, accused her of being an incompetent
player. Almost immediately after his remarks, Barnett was placed on
administrative leave, but was later reinstated after a committee that
reviewed the Colorado football program placed most of the blame for the
scandals on higher-ups. The aggressive image of football and the amounts of
money involved can support the perception of its being the "last bastion" of
sports administrators likely to wink at abuses; close scrutiny and drawing
of parallels with Barnett can be expected in any case that is claimed to
suggest coddling anti-social players.
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