Memories of the 28th Century

I wrote this on Superbowl Sunday, and I was in a bar that has no TV’s. When I was young and foolish, I liked football, both to play and to watch. Alas, like most things football has deteriorated over time. In any population there are only so many great players, and the NFL had all of them, but some greedy people created additional teams and started the AFL to try to cash in on the game’s popularity. Initially, the AFL tried to create a big show, and they did grab a few good players, and the NFL made some expansion teams to try to control cities that were potential targets. Between the new league and the expansion teams the quality was diluted and the great player were spread more widely.
It is too late to mourn, because football’s golden era ended when the AFL was founded in 1959. But the game had already deteriorated greatly from its origin in 1874.

American Football originated in the games between Harvard and McGill played in Cambridge, Mass. in 1874. It was a two game series with the first game under Harvard’s rules, and Harvard trounced McGill. The second game was played under McGill’s rules, which were based on Rugby rules. McGill won that second game, but Harvard changed its rules, and started playing McGill style. Those games in 1874 were the founding of both American football and Canadian football. Before then American colleges had played a game more like soccer.

Football players in those times dressed the way that Rugby players still dress: tee shirt and shorts, and that garb served for a few decades. Alas, the players allowed their mothers to see the games, and the mothers were horrified that junior was being beaten and smacked into by others, but they were wearing pads or guards, so little damage was done. The history of introducing pads is long and nasty, but it started with helmets. The mothers determined that junior would have to have protection, and the progressive armor plating of football players began, and the players became more capable of injuring others, with the result that there are relatively more injuries to football players than to unprotected rugby players (see link below).

If you aren’t familiar with rugby, then look for some online. I posted a link to the rugby channel below, but there are other sites. Rugby doesn’t have the series of downs that American and Canadian football have, so it is faster paced and more active.

One interesting variant that I saw a few years ago was the seven minute game. That was very fast and interesting, and there was scoring.

Even after we switch to Rugby there will be opportunities for people to make money from having a team, so there probably will be too many teams that aren't as good as they should be, and there will be endless playoff series after the end of the season, but the game is more interesting to watch, and the players aren't wearing as much as a knight in the lists would have worn, so the game is closer to reality, and children can play it without spending hundreds of dollars on protective gear.

Rugby also has the advantage of being an international game, so your favorite team will be able to have off-season play in countries and continents. And London sports betting includes rugby.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1874_H..._football_game

https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/10/rugby/504143/

Collegiate rugby union injury patterns in New England: a prospective cohort study
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/42/7/595

The Rugby Channel
http://www.therugbychannel.tv/videos...pain-v-france#!