sociology and sports

Football

American football is a professional sport that was derived from the game of Rugby by Walter Camp in 1879 (Bellis). Walter played football at Yale University where he attended college. He was involved in developing the football rules as we know them today. The rules of football were taken from the sports of Rugby and Soccer. Football has grown into a sport that is widely viewed and attended in the American society. Today, people go to football games at middle schools, high schools, and college stadiums. The college games have become professional games that are attended and viewed through media by millions of fans across the American nation.

The rules that were adopted and changed included; one side, or team, retained the undisputed possession of the ball until that side gives up the ball as a result of violations. The line of scrimmage was also created. The number of team members on the playing field changed from 15 members to 11. Walter created the quarterback and the center positions. The forward pass was also implemented as well as numerical scoring. Walter created the safety, interference, penalties, and the neutral zone. Tackling as low as the knee was permitted starting in 1888. A touchdown increased in value to six points and field goals decreased to three points starting in 1912. The National Football League (NFL) was formed in 1920 for professional college teams.

Football fans today range from about 18-64 in age and are both male and female. They come from all walks of life and are equal mixes of all the races. Most of the fans have been to college. They live in urban and suburban cities. The players are of different races as well. They are male that range in age from 19 to about 50. They have been to college and live in urban areas. A lot of the players have also gone into other businesses as they play football.

Football is a very competitive sport that seems to drive more competition, not only between teams and players, but between fans as well. Fans have their favorite teams that they support from game to game and from season to season. Because football is a professional sport, it is widely covered in media, TV, and radio, etc. When fans cannot go to games, the TV is the media they usually use to watch the game and keep up with the scores of their chosen teams. The more media coverage, the more that competition seems to drive the fans to support their favorite team.

The competition is not just about the teams, it is also driven between players. NFL has a Hall of Fame for the best football players who produce the most winning points in the games (Ormeland, 2012). Players can compete to be accepted in the NFL Hall of Fame by competing for the most points in the games for a given season. The teams also compete to be able to play in the Super Bowl, the last big game of a season.