American football is the most popular sport in America, being followed by fans of every age. The broadcast viewership audience is unmatched by any other sport, as college football and the NFL are gathering thousands of fans at stadiums, and millions in front of the screens.
Football is played all over the country, with more than a million kids playing the sport at the high school level, and around 80,000 students are playing football at college in the NCAA and NAIA. Less than 1% of them are talented and lucky enough to make it to the NFL.
The NFL is a story for itself, as it is the most popular American professional football league with the highest average attendance of any professional sports league worldwide. The Super Bowl, which is the NFL’s championship game, is among the most watched sporting events in the world. The league had an annual revenue of around $19 billion in 2023, making it the most valuable sports league in the world.
The sport was invented in the United States and has its origins in soccer and rugby. The first American football game ever took place on November 6, 1869, between the Universities of Princeton and Rutgers, with Rutgers winning 6-4. The teams consisted of 25 players and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried.
A decade later, a set of significant rule changes were drawn up by Walter Camp, who is considered the “Father of American Football.” He established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. After a while, the rulebook involved changes that legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football.
The term “football” was officially established in the 1876 college football season rulebook, when the sport first shifted from soccer-style rules to rugby-style rules.
On November 12, 1892, Pudge Heffelfinger was paid $500, which is equivalent to over $16,000 today, to play a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association in a match against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. This is the first recorded instance of a player being paid to participate in an American football game.
The National Football League, commonly known as the NFL, was originally established in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association. The league and football in general were on the rise, and they became increasingly popular following the 1958 NFL Championship game, a match between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants that is still referred to as the “Greatest Game Ever Played.” The game was followed by millions of television viewers and had a major impact on the growing popularity of the sport.
The American Football League (AFL) introduced a few innovations in the early 1960s, which led to football becoming the most popular sport in the United States by the mid-1960s.
Since then, the sport has achieved unparalleled popularity, which is intensively spreading around the world. Many still find it dangerous to play, but watching the game brings an excitement that no other sport can match.
