Who invented American Football and when?
Both American football and soccer 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. McGill University athletes, who had learned rugby from the local British Army garrison, introduced the sport to the U.S. with a game against Harvard University in 1874. The game quickly spread to other Ivy League colleges. Encouraged by Yale University’s Walter Camp, the schools began to adopt rules that would differentiate American football from rugby in the 1880s. The scrimmage was introduced in 1880 and the system of downs in 1882. By the turn of the 20th century, football had become notoriously dangerous; 18 college players died in 1905 alone. Colleges responded with a series of rule changes to open up the game, most importantly the forward pass, along with outlawing dangerous formations such as the “flying wedge”, and introducing and requiring better equipment such as helmets. The game h
