Professional Football
The modern game of football has its origins in the game of rugby fromwhich it sprang. American professional football grew out of theintercollegiate football matches of the late 1800s. The very firstintercollegiate football match in the United States could be moreaccurately described as a 50-man soccer game. (Umphlett 1992) It tookplace on November 6, 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers in New Brunswick,N.J. Both schools belonged to the Intercollegiate Football Association,which was composed of Columbia University, Princeton University, RutgersUniversity, and Yale University. The game played used the modified LondonFootball Association rules, making the game similar to rugby, a stillpopular team sport in the world today. Harvard University, one of the eastern elite schools meanwhile,refused to join the Intercollegiate Football Association and instead lookedfor other opponents. The Harvard team accepted a challenge from McGillUniversity of Montreal, Canada, to play a series of games (1874-75) underRugby rules. The Rugby-type game soon caught on at the other schools also,and within a decade the distinctive game of American football evolved. Forthe next seven years, rugby became inc
In 1876 a forerunner of the National Collegiate AthleticAssociation, known as Massasoit, held a convention in part to hammer out anagreed upon set of rules thus producing the first American football rules. Over the years the team has been known as theNormals, the Racine Cardinals, the Chicago Cardinals, the St. Today the NFL, (combined NFL and AFL teams), is a billion dollar ayear enterprise with farm type teams in Europe with possible expansion intoMexico, Canada and Japan. However, in 1875, when they played Yale,Harvard convinced its opponent to play under new rules. LouisCardinals, and the Phoenix Cardinals. Because paying men to play the sport for your club was not consideredwithin the rules of club football league play, Heffelfinger's payment wentunacknowledged for 80 years. First the teams were coping withquickly rising salaries of its players; second, football players wereconsistently jumping from team to team chasing every more lucrative offers;third, the teams began using players that were still enrolled in college. The game rules adopted at this and subsequent meetings adhered closelyto the college rules of football. The first ever AFL games were played in 1960, paralleling the NFL season. In addition, in 1896 the Allegheny Athletic Association team fieldedthe first completely professional team, followed the following year by theLatrobe Athletic Association in 1897. Heffelfinger for $500 for his participation. This first meeting, between theGreen Bay Packers, of the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL, won bythe Green Bay Packers 35-10 was what was to become the first Super Bowel.
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