Certain activities define the character of a nation.
Likewise, the National Football League (NFL) defines the American
character probably more than anything else. Conceived as the American
Professional Football Association in 1920, it soon adopted the name
National Football League in 1922. Undoubtedly the largest of all
professional football leagues in America, NFL is made up of 32 teams
coming from numerous American regions and cities.
With seeds in
the American college football genre, NFL football is a direct
descendant of rugby football. Rugby football, in its turn, was imported
to the US from Canada in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In
its infancy, it became synonymous with American college football with
Montreal’s McGill University inviting Harvard University to Quebec to
play the Canadian version of rugby football.
Meanwhile,
professional American football was gaining momentum despite the
renowned elite football college games. This was happening mainly on the
East coast, while professional football was stealing the show in the
Midwest. The American Professional Football Association was founded in
Ohio with legendary athlete Jim Thorpe as President. It began with
eleven teams and was not strictly a league. The main purpose was to end
robbing other teams’ players to win a football game.
With the
birth of NFL, rules became more stringent and laws began to be
enforced. However, teams continued to trickle in and leave at the same
pace. It was in the 1970’s and 1980’s that NFL football finally secured
its position in the heart and culture of America as the most important
football event of the nation. The Super Bowl, a name given to the final
game in a NFL series, became an undeclared yet accepted national
holiday.
What sealed the NFL football in every American’s heart
was the cult it created. It was not only the game that mattered; it was
the entire event, the entertainment, the TV coverage and everything
that added to the glamour of the football series. To add further to the
glitz, NFL introduced pre-season exhibition games. And to add a little
more flavor the game, NFL opted to play them international. This came
to be known as the American Bowls.
In 1991, it formed the World
League of American Football with developmental purposes in mind. This
body, presently known as the NFL Europa, has teams in Germany and
Netherlands. In 2003, the NFL League launched its own cable-TV channel,
the NFL Network.
Swati Banerjee is the owner of Writing Ink, a web content management firm based out of India. Please take a minute to visit http://www.writing-ink.com to experience how the bright young minds here make magic with words!
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