Guess where football originally came from? Thought it over? Well, guess what? It originally came from the eastern United States. Now you may be thinking,"When did football start? And was it always played like it is today?" Well, let's find out...

Football Beginnings

Football began to develop in the 1800s. Football was originally a combination of soccer and rugby.

In 1874, the first game resembling present-day football was played. The game was between Harvard and McGill College. As we said, at this time, they played football like soccer and rugby.  Harvard wanted to play the game like soccer, and McGill wanted to play the game like rugby. So you can see there was a lot of confusion. They decided to play two games. One game was played like rugby and the other game was played like soccer.

After the two games, Harvard agreed that McGill's way (like rugby) was better. They liked it so much that they decided to introduce the sport to other Eastern colleges. And that was how college football began.

The first NFL (National Football League) game was played on August 31, 1895 between a team from Latrobe, PA and a team from Jeannette. Jeannette lost 12-0. It wasn't really until the 1950s though that the NFL earned its popularity.

The Equipment

In the early days of football, the players did not have as much protection as players do today. At first there were no shoulder pads, and the pads on their legs were very small. They also didn’t wear helmets.

As time passed, players began to wear helmets, but they still did not have face masks. They also began to wear shoulder pads, and the pads on their legs were improved. Later, more improvements were made. The pads were improved, and they added a face mask.

Changes

As we said, early football players did not have much protection. There were also not many penalties back then. But, in 1900, President Theodore Roosevelt fought to make the game safer. He urged teams to make the game safer because there were so many injuries.