The NFL at 100: How America's Most Popular Sport is Just Getting Started

By Adriana Conte

From the movie Concussion to Colin Kaepernick’s controversial kneel, the sport of football has seen its fair share of debate over the past few years. With all this scrutiny, some fans are starting to ask: What lies ahead for the game? Are these the signs of a dying sport? Is there still hope for this old pastime?

In apprecia

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Feb 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781641374316

Book preview

Contents

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INTRODUCTION

PART 1

EARLY HISTORY

CHAPTER 1

The Watershed Moment

CHAPTER 2

The Death Harvest: A Call for Change 

CHAPTER 3

Ralph E. Hay Brings Football to the Professional Stage 

CHAPTER 4

The 1930s: A Decade of Change

CHAPTER 5

Growing the Game: 1940–2000

CHAPTER 6

2000s–Today

PART 2

CHALLENGES AND CRITICISMS TODAY

CHAPTER 7

SAFETY

CHAPTER 8

But How Safe Is Too Safe?

CHAPTER 9

Protests: When Football and Politics Clash 

CHAPTER 10

Oversaturation: How Much Football Is Too Much?

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE:

The Best Days of the NFL Are Actually Ahead of Us

PART 3

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE NEXT CENTURY

CHAPTER 11

Improved Player Safety

CHAPTER 12

Flag Football: Does the Future of Football Have Flags?

CHAPTER 13

International Expansion: Bringing the Goalposts Abroad

CHAPTER 14

When Nosebleed Seats Beat the Living Room Couch: How the NFL Will Create the Ultimate In-Stadium Experience

CHAPTER 15

Bet on it: How the Legalization of Sports Betting Will Change the Game

CHAPTER 16

Fantasy Football: Letting Fans Take Control

CHAPTER 17

Inclusivity: Bring on the Girls

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

APPENDIX

Introduction

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It looked like any other play. The Pittsburgh Steelers defense squared up against the Cincinnati Bengals offense for Cincinnati’s first possession of the night. Bengals quarterback, Andy Dalton, took the snap on the second down.

Dalton piped it straight down the middle to wide receiver Josh Malone. Ryan Shazier immediately went in for the tackle to hold the Bengals short of the first down.

So yes, it looked like any other play. 

Until Shazier did not get up.

* * *

Honestly, I think within the next thirty years, tackle football is not going to be a thing anymore, my mom said with assurance. It’s going to become flag football. 

My family and I were sitting around the table on a typical Monday night, enjoying dinner during halftime of the Steelers versus Bengals game. After Steelers linebacker, Shazier, suffered a devastating spine injury in the first half after engaging in a head-on tackle, our dinner conversation topic implicitly had been decided. 

My dad and I shook our heads in denial to my mom’s statement. 

No way, my dad said. You can’t take America’s favorite sport and completely strip it of its character. It’s popular for a reason; I don’t even think people would watch it if it were flag football. 

I nodded in agreement with my dad. Despite its somewhat violent nature, I love football. I have grown up with the sport for all my life, and it has become a part of who I am. In fact, when I think of some of my fondest childhood memories, my mind takes me back to many typical Sundays in my household. The loud cheering, the game-day snacks, and that feeling of holding my breath as the Steelers were in the red zone on the third down. I loved every second of it. 

Sundays were reserved for football. Once the clock hit 10:00 a.m., my parents, sisters, and I were already dressed in our jerseys and ready for the games of the weekend. Throughout my many years of watching football with my family, I actually would say I have learned quite a bit. I learned curse words through my dad, who never ceased to let a few of them slip out during Steelers games. I learned the importance of team loyalty, even when your favorite team is not doing so well. I learned that it is possible to put all differences aside to unite behind a common team, even if it is only for a few hours. 

I learned that I love football. 

Because of these happy memories football has given me and my strong love for the game, I decided upon a career aspiration that still holds today: I want to work for the NFL. 

However, I have recently gotten some negative pushback from peers when I tell them this career aspiration. Like my mom, they make the argument that the popularity of football is declining and is only going to continue to do so. I had never thought of the sport as going downhill; football Sundays still remain a big deal to me and give me something to look forward to in my week. However, my mom’s statement and these comments from others got me thinking about what football will look like when I am older. Will I have the same experiences with my children as I had growing up? Or, will football be a mere thing of the past? My curiosity on this subject drove me to do further research and is ultimately what inspired the making of this book. 

* * *

Recently, there have been increasing levels of doubt that have struck the football industry. With the release of the movie Concussion and more stories that have come out about life-threatening brain injuries, I too was beginning to have my doubts. Was my mom right? Have we seen the best days of the NFL, or are the best days ahead of us? As someone who loves the sport, I wasn’t sure anymore. 

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), high school football participation reached its peak in 2008—and has been on the decline since. This decline coincides with great concern and skepticism about the safety of the sport and its long-term impact. If the number of youth football athletes is declining, so must, therefore, the number of future NFL players. What exactly does this mean for the professional league?

Current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has fallen victim to much of the backlash that has ensued. As he came into the role, Goodell was greeted with a great number of problems, many of which have only increased. He has been widely panned as not doing enough to ensure the safety and overall success of the sport, and now, thirteen years after he has taken over as commissioner, he is still subject to both player and fan disapproval. Has Goodell’s inability to propel professional football past this period of uncertainty affected the future of the country’s most popular sport? 

It is difficult to attribute his individual efforts to the path that professional football is set to take in the future. However, what is being put at the forefront of public attention seems to portray the future of football in a way that is much more black and white than the way I believe it to be. Because of its decline in public support, there are some people who believe that football will either stay the way it is and die out over time, or it will need to undergo a completely drastic change to keep it alive. Yet, on the opposite end of the spectrum, football advocates believe that, compared to how it was decades ago, the sport has become safer and more enjoyable than ever before. With these contrasting opinions circulating the football world, it is difficult to know which side to believe and where to stand. 

I began my research with the initial goal of taking one of these sides on the topic. Despite my football background, I had reached a point where I was very skeptical about the sport’s future. It was time to put my relationship with the sport aside to discover the truth. I wanted to trace the history and origins of football and analyze the nature of its present state to see if the sport was truly a lost cause, or if it is just at the start of a new beginning. But in doing so, I discovered something else. I recognize the evident drawbacks of football right now; therefore, I do expect to see some changes within the upcoming years. However, I believe that the NFL is neither at its peak nor in the process of dying out. I actually foresee it becoming even better in the future than it is now.

To come to this conclusion, it is first important to examine both the history of the NFL and its present state. Acknowledging the history allows us to see what football has endured before, and how it was able to overcome such hurdles. We will examine important topics such as key playmakers in the development of early football, the evolution of the helmet, and the crucial relationship between football and television. Arriving at the present, we will acknowledge some significant criticisms and challenges that the sport has endured over the past few years, with a strong emphasis on player safety. Recognizing these things and looking at opportunities for growth leads us to the future. Fantasy football will take off. New technology will enhance both at home and in-stadium fan experiences like never before. Safety will redefine the football experience.

And that’s not even everything.

My hope is that, in reading this, you will discover how despite what some people may think, the NFL is not going away any time soon; it will only continue to grow. I ultimately want others to see this book as a tool to help them analyze the sport with a new perspective, focusing especially on how societal evolution through time will force the league to continue advancing the sport in a number of ways.

The evolution of football from its history to its present state shows us the significant number of advancements that have been made to improve the safety and overall enjoyment of the game. For a sport where hitting and collision is expected, how safe can football ever truly be? The NFL and football as a whole, as we will see, have come quite a long way from the unorganized chaos it used to be in the past. Comparison of its past to its present reveals the positive advancements that have been made in response to the evolution of the game; such improvements have only made the sport safer, more popular, and more profitable. I, therefore, believe that professional football will continue this upward trend, while encountering many of the changes previously mentioned along the way to allow it to become even better. 

The NFL has now turned one hundred years old, but I think its success has only just begun. So, you may ask, what is this book really about? 

I am going to be discussing why the most popular game in America is only just getting started, and how it can keep its place at the top. 

PART ONE

EARLY HISTORY

Chapter 1

The Watershed Moment

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To gain an understanding of the future of football, we first must go back to its roots. The history of the game is complex. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when American football developed, as the sport is said to have evolved over time from a combination of rugby and soccer tactics. However, the historical underpinnings of football are essential to our knowledge of the changes made throughout the years and how such changes were addressed. 

The sport that captivates so many Americans across the country has a history that dates back hundreds of years. In fact, football has its roots in the Ivy League schools of the 1800s, where it began as pure college chaos. Many of the Ivy League schools played what was called mob football.¹ These matches established a significant following at universities such as Yale and Harvard, in particular. This ruthless style of play involved two teams consisting of as many men as possible hitting each other until eventually, one team kicked a ball through manmade goal posts. Bragging rights were the winning incentive. According to Bruce K. Stewart in his novel American Football, "rivalries between classes became so intense that, by the beginning of the Civil War, the game