Sat Dec 18, 2004 10:14 pm
Sat Dec 18, 2004 10:53 pm
American football does not much resemble soccer, the sport which most people outside the U.S. call "football". Consequently, American Football is best known internationally as "American Football". However, both of these games have their origins in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, and American football is directly descended from rugby football, usually known simply as "Rugby".
According to an apocryphal story rugby football began with a football game at Rugby School in England in 1823 when a player named William Webb Ellis suddenly ran with the ball only to be tackled by an opponent. Contrary to popular belief the game played at Rugby School was not soccer (which had yet to be codified) and the Rugby School version of football had always permitted handling the ball but had banned running with the ball. This rule breaking gradually became increasingly common until it became the accepted norm. Thus was born the game of Rugby Football.
The game progressed from that point and was introduced to North America from Canada, by the British Army garrison in Montreal, which played a series of games with McGill University. In 1874, McGill arranged to play a few games in the United States, at Harvard, which liked the new game so much that it became a feature of the Ivy League. Both Canadian and American football evolved from this point. The U.S. game still has some things in common with the two varieties of rugby, especially rugby league.
Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:00 am
But when theatrical skills can be more important than athletic skills in a game, i lose all respect for it.
Then you have all this shit how it's the "beuatiful game" and such. Soccer is the most boring game. It's just a joke, plain and simple.
Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:26 am