Football Evolution

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?