American Football
The game we call “football” is indigenous to North America. It did not have one inventor, rather, it developed gradually from soccer to rugby, to “rugby football”, to football.

As football developed into the way we know it today, it took on many rule changes. In the late 1800’s athletic clubs took up the sport, and professional football can be traced as far back as 1892. It was centered in Pennsylvania and then spread to Ohio. There the league that became known as the “National Football League” was formed [in 1920].

The NFL can be more fully understood if we trace the beginnings of the roots of “football”. Soccer is called football on other continents, it’s the most popular sport in the world today. Rugby is also played almost everywhere, the byproduct of British imperialism. American football is a cousin of these games, and they all involve, in one way or another, kicking an object up and down a field. Kicking games are thought to have existed for 2,000 years. Kicking and throwing objects for recreation in America are as old as America itself. In the latter part of the 18th century this haphazard “kicking game” assumed a place with fisticuffs, wrestling matches, and drinking bouts, enjoyed by undergraduates as a means of relief from the severe mental discipline of college life.

Two important steps in the evolution of football occurred in England.

First, Rugby was invented. Then in 1823 a student at the Rugby School [- William Webb Ellis - ] picked up the ball during a soccer game and ran with it. The rules forbade advancing the ball in any way except kicking it, and many people were outraged at Ellis for breaking the rules. Ellis became the subject of countless juvenile stories of young men who weren’t afraid to go against the mainstream of opinion. A photograph of the plaque at Rugby College commemorating Ellis’ achievement is virtually a requisite in any recollection of football history. Eventually, independent [of British] thinking Americans wrote rules

that would overhaul the traditional style of Rugby.

There was high school soccer/football before there was college soccer/football. As a prelude to what would become American football, collegians played rugby, but the sport was so grueling that it was barred at Harvard in 1860. Nine years later, on Nov. 6, 1869, two New Jersey Universities [Rutgers and Princeton] played what is considered the first intercollegiate game in the United States. It hardly resembled modern day football.

Each team had 25 player, kicking it or butting it with the head advanced the ball. Goals [posts set 25 yards apart], not touchdowns, conversions, or field goals decided the game. The first team to make 6 goals won. Rutgers triumphed 6 goals to 4. Princeton won the rematch a week later. Before long, other Universities began taking up the game, Columbia in 1870, and Yale 2 years later.

Harvard continued to play a game more similar to rugby, but in 1875, when they played Yale, Harvard convinced its opponent to play under new rules. Touchdowns counted for 1 point and a successful conversion kick counted for 4 points. A field goal was worth 5 points. It seemed as though everyone had different rules and the sport was in a state of confusion. Then came the Massasoit convention of 1876 at which the first rules of American football were written. That same year the imposing figure of a man who would become the father of the game as we know it today, Walter Camp [of Yale], appeared on the stage of football. The Massasoit convention was the forerunner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

In 1877, the game was one in which the ball was put down on the field

with both teams clustering around it and all of them kicking at the

ball and trying to drive it free. Someone finally picked up the ball and

started running off with it. Then he would meet the opposition and kick

the ball away or make a lateral or backward pass to a teammate.

In 1880, Camp had the idea to give one side undisputed possession of the ball, until that side gave up the ball on it’s own violation. This was passed by the rules convention and the line of scrimmage was invented. In the same year, Camp convinced the rules committee that teams should number 11 players, not 15 on each side. Further, the person receiving the ball from the snapper [snapback], later called a center, should be called the “quarterback”. Snaps were first made with the foot. Later, players were allowed to guide the ball with a hand. Finally the center came to snap the ball entirely with both hands. Having created the quarterback position, Camp [Yale’s captain] would become the first to have his quarterback call signals. For example, the quarterback would say, “Play up sharp, Charlie!”, if a kick was about to be made. From the line of scrimmage, the blocking game resulted. One team would keep the ball for the entire half and the other for the second half. Camp suggested to the rules committee [and passed] a rule requiring a team to make 5 yards in 3 downs.

In 1883, Camp standardized the scoring system which showed a strong prejudice towards kicking, influenced by rugby and soccer. Touchdowns were now worth 2 points, the conversion kick 4 points, and field goal 5 points.

In 1888, Camp proposed a rule permitting tackling as low as the knees, and it passed. Its effect on football was stupefying. Runners who went down that way were there to stay. The savage mass play era evolved. Offenses contracted and bunched themselves around the runner. The dangerous “wedge” appeared. Play became brutal, fights proliferated, and there were deaths on the field.

A public outcry arose in 1905 when 18 deaths and 159 serious injuries occurred. The mass play era split intercollegiate football, led to a White House conference in 1905 and the subsequent formation of the NCAA. In 1906 the forward pass became legal, through few took advantage of it. One rule said that a no pass could travel further than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage and that an incomplete pass would result in a 15-yard loss.

Other large-scale reforms were in the making. The game was shortened from 70 minutes to 60, and required 10 yards for a first down. A neutral zone was set up between the teams at the line of scrimmage and the offense had to have at least 6 men on the line, thus illiminating the dangerous plays in which blockers took running starts before the snap of the ball. The 7th blocker on the line of scrimmage was mandated in 1910.

Pads of any kind were scarce and players played the entire 90-minutes, unless they were carried off the field.

In 1894 games were shortened to 70 minutes. In 1897 the value of a touchdown increased to 5 points and the still difficult point after went down to a point. In 1912 a touchdown increased in value to 6 points and field goals went

down to 3 points. The field was reduced to 100 yards and the offense now had four downs in which to gain 10 yards.

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Sport Psychology: How it Helps Athletes In our society today it seems like sports rule the land. Everywhere we look, there is some kind of sporting event going on or being televised. Almost everyone could be considered a fan of at least one sport. Some people follow sports like a religion. With such an increased focus on sports, the athlete’s performances are put under a microscope. This puts more pressure on athletes to give a winning performance. No longer do athletes play for fun, they play to win. This isn’t happening just on the professional level; it is happening on all levels of sport. From little league to backyard football, the goal is to win at all cost. With this increase pressure, athletes are looking for more and more ways to better their performance. One such way, which is now gaining popularity, is Sports Psychology. Though this isn’t a new field, its popularity is just beginning to take off. There is still a lot of skepticism about the validity or worth while of the practices used. The following is a review of a number of articles that outline different studies done that show how athletes can improve their performances. The articles were found using a database search of PsychInfo. Keywords such as increased performance, psychological practices, and sports were used to narrow the search. What is Sport Psychology? Over the years there have been many different definitions offered as to what Sport Psychology is. One of the best ways to look at it is to ask what does a psychologist do? A psychologist does a variety of things. They provide psychological assessment, crisis intervention, and psychological service. Just to name a few broad areas. All of these are areas that can also be useful to an athlete. A lot of the tools used by a sport psychologist are adapted directly from clinical psychology. Concepts such as Freud’s Psychodynamics, Caltel’s Personality Test, and The Piagetial Cognitive Theory are widely used. (Sloubanov, 1999) All of these are critical tools used by a sport psychologist to assist an athlete with his or her problem. Sport psychology involves preparing the mind of an athlete, just as one prepares the body. Sport psychology is an emerging field in the worlds of psychology and athletics. What Methods are Used? The problem that an athlete is facing will dictate what type of approach a sport psychologist takes. Issues such as motivation, self-efficacy, and depression are common in the athletic arena. (Miserandino, 1998, p. 287) Athletes can also suffer greatly from anxiety and stress. (Holm, Beckwith, Ehde, Tinius, 1995, p. 463) Any of these conditions can be detrimental to ones competitive ability. Techniques such as mental imagery training and relaxation techniques can be used to attack problems in these areas. (McKenzie, Howe, 1997, p. 196) Marianne Miserandino’s research was focused on failure, and why athletes believe that they don’t accomplish their goals. She learned that starting at young age, athletes are told that failure comes from their lack of ability. This is called learned helplessness. (Miserandino, 1998, p. 287) In her study she approached this problem by splitting her subject into two groups. One group received feedback about their shooting techniques and were told that lack of effort was the reason for missed shots, not lack of ability. The other group received only feedback on their techniques. After her 4-week study was done, the group that received the positive reinforcement showed more mastery of the skills and greater improvement than their counterparts. (Miserandino, 1998 p. 286) Another study also used basketball free throws as the basis for its study. Craig Wrisberg and Mark Anshel did this study. It looks at the effectiveness of applying cognitive techniques to improve performance of shooting free throws. (Wrisberg, Anshel, 1989, p. 95) Participants in the study were asked to shoot a number of free throws to provide a baseline for the study. Over the next three days, the athletes were giving instruction in between shooting sessions. They were introduced to mental imagery as a way to help with their shooting. The results showed a significant improvement in shot percentages of the players. (Wrisberg, Anshel, 1989, p. 99) The Holm, Beckwith, Ehde, and Tinius study also looked at the use of cognitive approaches to athletic performance. They we interested in the role of stress and anxiety. College athletes were split into two groups. One group participated in daily two-hour group sessions that introduced them to a variety of cognitive-behavioral interventions. These methods were discussed and practiced. The subjects were also asked to do a homework assignment outside of the group sessions. This went on for seven weeks. At the end of the study, the group who went through the program showed a significant decrease in anxiety, increases in academic performance, and increase in successful athletic performance. (Holm et al., 1995) Where is the Research Going G. Fitts opened the first lab associated with sport psychology in 1895.(Sloubanov, 1999) Since his experiments on behaviorism and stimulus/response, there has been much progress and many changes. Sport has gone through a great metamorphosis that no one of that time could ever imagine. Today sport psychology has moved from the simple experiments of the early labs to sophisticated trials and tests. Focus is now on subjects as mental health , psychopysiological reactivity, and body image and esteem. (Gauvin, Spence, 1995, p. 436) The world of athletics is now a business, and now like other businesses, is always looking for ways to improve itself. Conclusion Since athletics seems to be moving from being a pastime to a way of life for many in today’s world, it is important that there is a means to improve performance. The corporate world has long been using psychological techniques to improve employee performance. It was only a matter of time before the athletic world adopted the same practices. Some people are skeptical about the validity of sport psychology, while others live by it. With sports producing hundreds of millions of dollars each year. It is important that athletes do everything that they can to improve the way that they play. Sport psychology is a valid, scientific way for athletes to do just that. Word Count: 1031