History of Football

It’s worth the listen. The story about Tank is hilarious. I didn’t know that football in the South is that much worse than Little League parents. That’s really sad.

And then the interview with Tank himself… synchronized swimming? Mmmmkay?

They fail in the beginning (and at the end) to tell about the why of football. The college kids playing it were the elites, the kids who could afford to not join the military. They were trying to show their manliness in lieu of doing what their fathers, uncles and older siblings did. Micks, WOPs and Buffalo soldiers all had no problem going out on the frontier to do what the US had yet to do in the indian wars throughout the 1870’s and 80’s… or on the waters against piracy. But these were the trust fund kids, and they couldn’t be bothered to do something “manly” if it was more than a walk from a hot shower and meal. Army didn’t even have football until Navy challenged them to a contest. And Navy’s team had only been around as a club team.

But then they also forget to mention that many of the compiled wins in the early days were against metro athletic clubs and high schools, not just universities.

And they forget to tell us that football, until 1875, was essentially soccer where you could bat (not carry) the ball with your hands and arms. But Hahvud liked rugby. So football became rugby for about five years. Then the snap came about, and for two years football became a stall… literally. You could snap the ball and fall forward into the pile forever. This is why down and distance was created. It was originally three plays for five yards, which is why the current field now has white lines across the field every five yards.

And it was probably as boring then as it is now. But at least I now know that’s because the man had to make a huge rulebook just to try to keep Pop Warner from beating them every year with his group of redskins.