The Basics of American Football

American football's history is deeply rooted from the early beginnings of rugby football and association football, with both games being influenced and developed by other varieties of football that were played in the United Kingdom. The earlier football variations started out at around the middle of the 19th century, with simple rules regarding kicking the ball either over a line or through a goal. Nowadays, an American football team is composed of twenty two players active on the football field at any given time.

The early beginnings of American football started out from rugby football's basic rules, with some key changes made by the “father of American football”, Walter Camp. Some of the more popular and more important changes to the rules were the insertion of the down and distance rules and the line of scrimmage rules. The early 20th century saw more developments made by college level coaches such as Amos Alonzo Stagg, Knute Rockne, Glenn Warner, and Eddie Cochems. The efforts of these coaces made it possible for players now to be able to take advantage of the forward pass.

Eventually, the popularity of college level football continued to grow. This partially influenced the need for a professional football league, which prompted the formation of the American Professional Football Association in 1920.