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Football's Place in American Society Essay

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Since its creation in 1869, football has been a major part of American society. Americans love the intensity and display of sportsmanship on and off the field. Every Sunday almost every television in America is tuned to CBS, NBC or FOX anticipating the opening kickoff for their favorite team. The National Football League, popularly known as just the NFL, is the largest professional American football league in the world. It hosts a total of 32 teams, each representing a state in the U.S. Some states are lucky enough to have more than one team representing different cities. Football season usually gets started around early August with all 32 teams playing at least four exhibition games. These pre-season games are good for introducing rookie …show more content…

In 2008, a study showed that the percentage of people who watched football in America (30%) was equal to the combined percentages of people who watched the next three top professional sports. (Baseball-15%, NASCAR-10%, Hockey-5%) This shows how drastically football’s audience in the country has increased. It is hard to believe that such a huge organization came from the passion of a few men determined to revolutionize the sports world. An insight to how, when and where it all started might have the biggest baseball fan asking, “Is it Sunday yet?”
Noel III
November 6th, 1869 marked a historic day in American history. The first ever football game was played between two college teams, Rutgers University and Princeton University. The game was played at Rutgers field and each team had a total of 25 players. During this era of football, a team could only score by kicking the ball in the opposing team’s goal; throwing or carrying the ball was against the rules. Now whenever a team traveled to another school to face that team, the game was played according to the rules of the home team. You could already imagine the controversy that caused between schools so; in 1873, a meeting was held between representatives from different colleges to discuss the rules. Schools like Harvard University, McGill University and Tufts University played significant roles in bringing football closer to the way we know it today. After a few games between the schools, each found that they enjoyed

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