Ask Me Help Desk - Football/gridiron

Actually American Football is a derivation of the forerunners of Association Football and Rugby Football. Therefore, it has every right to call itself Football. Allow me to explain why.

I would like to enlighten you regarding the history and continuing development of the games of Football around the world. Football in many forms has been around for over two thousand years.

The earliest form of Football was, the Tsu'Chu, used for exercise in the second and third centuries BC in China. 500 or so years later in Japan the football game of Kemari began and is still played today.(1)

The ancient Greeks played a form of football known as Harpaston, and the Romans played a similar game, Harpastum. In medieval times, a form of football known as Calcio flourished in Italy. Natives of Polynesia are known to have played a variety of the game with a football made of bamboo fibers, and the Inuit played a form of football with a leather ball filled with moss.(2)

Notice that Association Football and Rugby Football are not yet formed. They will not come into existence for another several hundred years.

Shrovetide Football, as it was called, belonged in the "mob football" category. Here the number of players was unlimited and the rules were vague. For example, according to an ancient handbook from Workington in England, any means could be employed to get the ball to its target with the exception of murder and manslaughter. Shrovetide football is still played today on Shrove Tuesday in some areas, such as, Ashbourne in Derbyshire. However, it is no longer so riotous as it used to be, nor are such extensive casualties suffered as was probably the case centuries ago.(1)

It is certain that decisive development of football with which we are now familiar took place in England and Scotland. The game that flourished in the British Isles from the 8th to the 19th centuries had a considerable variety of local and regional versions. They were subsequently smoothed down and smartened up to form the present day sports of Association Football and Rugby Football. They were substantially different from all the previously known forms. The earlier forms were more disorganized, more violent, more spontaneous, and usually played by an indefinite number of players.(1)

Association Football and Rugby Football only became known in the nineteenth century. Therefore, these groups and their related associations could have no influence on the game until after they were formed.

At the beginning of the 19th century several types of the game—all permitting players to kick the ball but not carry it—were being played at various English schools, including Eton, Harrow, and Rugby. The modification of the game that permits carrying the ball was first introduced at Rugby in 1823 when one schoolboy disregarded the established rules, tucked the ball under his arm, and dashed across the goal of the opponents.(2)

Carrying the ball was another development in one of the many varieties of football.

In 1863, a number of clubs devoted to the kicking game met in London. They organized the London Football Association, and adopted a code of uniform rules; this type of game was henceforth known as Association Football, and later soccer, a word derived from association.(2)

In 1871 a group devoted to the ball-carrying game organized the Rugby Football Union and adopted the rules then in vogue at Rugby School; that form of the game thereafter was known as Rugby Football.(2)

It is interesting to note that these games are all postscripted by the word Football, as is the next form of football, Australian Football. It should therefore be acceptable for American Rules Football to be called American Football.

Football was first played in Australia about the middle of the 19th century, based on rugby, soccer, and Gaelic football. Australian Rules Football (as it is officially called) is a fast-paced game, played on an oval field with teams of 18 players. The ball cannot be thrown but can be caught; overhand catching, known as high marking, and long kicking are the two distinctive features of the game.(2)

In the United States, a form of football using a blown-up bladder was played in the colony of Virginia in 1609. In 1820 students at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) participated in a soccer-like game, called Ballown, in which they advanced the ball by punching it with their fists. Intercollegiate competition began on November 6, 1869, with a game between Rutgers and Princeton. The game, however, resembled soccer more than modern-day American football.(2)

Harvard, preferring to use its own rules, abstained from this competition. In 1874 Harvard met McGill University of Montreal, Canada, in a match played under the rugby-like rules of the Canadians. The Harvard players, impressed, altered their own rules accordingly. Harvard and Yale played a football game for the first time on November 13, 1875, using Harvard's rules.(2)

The following year, representatives of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia answered an invitation from Princeton football representatives to attend a parley at Springfield, Massachusetts. The result of the convention included a new set of football rules and the formation of the Intercollegiate Football Association. Although the rugby-like rules of Harvard again prevailed, certain soccer rules were incorporated. The resulting combination of rugby and soccer became popular, and as time went on the rules were constantly changed until a new game evolved.(2)

Since the London Football Association was born in 1863 and the Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871, it is doubtful that they had any influence whatsoever on American Football. However, it is very likely that the proponents of earlier European Football influenced American Football in the beginning. This places American Football on an even field developmentally and nearly parallel with the formation of the London Football Association and the Rugby Football Union. Consider 1876, when the Intercollegiate Football Association was begun by standardizing on the Harvard rules.

As far as respect: Remember that you can not earn respect by firing ill-informed comments at people.

P.S.- The gridiron is what the field is called; not the name of the game.

Bibliography

(1) The colorful history of a fascinating game
More than 2000 Years of Football
By Dr. Wilfried Gerhardt
(Press Officer- German Football Association)

(2) http://www.thehistoryoffootball.com