This past Sunday went just as any
other Superbowl Sunday goes in my house: my brother and my dad parked on the
coach getting through a minimum of three bags of potato chips, my mom
constantly commenting on how they are the epitome of American health, and me,
drifting in and out of the TV room, amusing myself with a few commercials and
then going back to my room to do homework. However, this year was a little
different. I decided to spend more time watching the commercials, but with a
more critical eye. One commercial in particular came to my attention, and it
really opened my eyes to how far sports in America have come over the past
century.
If you look closely at the
commercial, the yard markings on the field are actually years. For instance, at
0:19, you can clearly see the yardage markings, and someone being tackled at
about 1940, which indicates that this is about the time that “we had a game on
our hands,” according to the narrator. This commercial to me seems more than
anything to be a historical overview of the pathway the game of football has
been on for the past century. It is incredibly eye opening though, because this
game, although it has not been around very long, it has made quite an impact on
American society and taken some huge strides in terms of development.
I went to one website to look at
the timeline of American football, and was amazed to find that it only dated
back as far as 1820, which was when the timeline stated that “football
evolves.” Although it seems like a long time, it really isn’t when you think
about it. Sports like lacrosse have been around for centuries, dating back to
the native Americans, while soccer dates back before the common era. These
sports have grown and developed over an extensive amount of time, whereas
football has taken less than two centuries.
Why
is it that football has developed so quickly compared to other sports? Is it
coincidence, or is it something about the game itself?
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