History of American Football

American Football history is quite similar to the early versions of soccer and rugby, both of which originated from the United Kingdom whish can be found during the mid-1800s. Other than that, American Football also involves twenty-two players on the field. Terms such as "fullback" and halfback," which refer to positions, were also derived from the soccer sport. American football resulted from a major divergence from the rules of rugby.

Walter Camp considered as Father of American Football instituted the rules of American Football in 1879. Walter Camp edited every American Football rulebook until his death in 1925. Some of the major changes that Walter Camp made was down and distance and line of scrimmage as well as the rule of down and distance. He also standardized the scoring system using a numerical scoring and created the interference, safety, penalties, and neutral zone. 

Walter Camp established the rule that one side had undisputed possession of the ball until the ball is given up due to the said team's violations. Other rules that being changed were 11 players on a team instead of 15, tackling as low as the knee was permitted and touchdown increased in value to six points and field goals went down to three points (1912). Walter Camp also created the quarter-back and center positions. Apart from that, college coaches like Glen Pop Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg and Knute Rockne in the late 19th and 20th centuries changed the game play by introducing the forward pass.

Back in the 1920's, a group of businessman and sports enthusiasts from the middle of America gathered in Canton, Ohio in a car showroom to discuss and strategize an organized league from the football game. From the meeting, they defined rules, traded ideas, elected a board. The new league would be called the American Professional Football Association. Two years later the name was changed to the National Football League (NFL), which became the major league of American Football. Today, there are numerous Pro American Football teams representing different states such as the Detroit Lions and New York Giants.