Football

Overview

The most popular sport in America, football is both entertainment and big business. Join Active Minds as we trace the history of the game from its 19th Century origins as a modified version of British Rugby to the Super Bowl era, telling a few of the great stories of the game along the way. We’ll also cover some of the sport’s current challenges and opportunities, including concerns over player safety and the emerging role of legalized gambling on the sport.

Key Lecture Points

  • Football, the most popular sport in America, is closely related to rugby and association football.  Rugby became popular in the late 19th century at northeastern American and Canadian universities.  Walter Camp is considered the Father of American Football for his role in transitioning collegiate rugby into the game of football we know today.
     
    In the early 20th century, football had become so brutal and, in fact, deadly that it was banned by some colleges.  In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt gathered the leaders of a number of American schools to agree upon ways to make the sport safer.  This led to the establishment of a rules committee that made significant changes to the game, including the introduction of the forward pass. The committee later became the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
  • The National Football League was founded in the early 1920s when professional football was in a state of flux with dramatically rising salaries and players constantly jumping from one team to another, even during the season, for more money.
  • Today the NFL is the world’s richest sports league, making $18.6 billion in revenue during the 2022-2023 season.  A 7.8% increase from the previous year. The majority of NFL revenue comes from selling broadcast rights to networks.  In 2023, the NFL began an 11-year contract whereby it receives over $10 billion dollars from CBS, Disney (which owns ESPN and ABC), NBC, Fox and Amazon.
  • In recent years, football’s image has been darkened by the increasing number of reports about chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired players.  CTE is caused by repeated hits to the head and causes memory and cognitive issues such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and depression sometimes leading to suicide.  A class action suit was brought by former players against the NFL and a $1 billion settlement was reached in 2015.

Discussion Questions

  • What impact is increased legalized gambling having on the game of football and the way that Americans watch it?
  • Do you think that the NFL will be able to establish or move a team to Europe?  Why or why not?
  • Why do you think Americans are so passionate about football?  Do you think it will continue to be the nations’ favorite sport given concerns about concussions and other stains on the image of the sport?

More to Explore

Books For Further Reading

  • Schulian, John.  Football: Great Writing About the National Sport. Library of America, 2015. 490 pages.  This anthology brings together legendary football writers like Red Smith, Frank Deford, Jimmy Breslin and more with stories that describe the complexity, the spectacle and the humanity of football.
  • Mason, Andrew.  Tales From the Denver Broncos Sideline: A Collection of the Greatest Bronco Stories Ever. Sports Publishing LLC, 2014. 224 pages.   This book captures the memorable moments and outstanding players in the history of the Broncos, beginning in 1960 when the team became a charter member of the American Football League.
  • Roberts, Diane.  Tribal: College Football and the Secret Heart of America. Harper, 2015. 256 pages. This book is part memoir and part cultural analysis.  The author describes her love for college football while discussing the controversies that plague her beloved sport.