"This is the first football history to chronicle year by year how playing rules developed the game. Football - a four-dimensional game of rushing, kicking, forward passing, and backward passing - has had more playing rule changes since its inception than any other sport. The Anatomy of a Game follows football rules from the game's European roots through its beginning in the United States to its position as the number-one spectator sport in the 1990s. Highlighted are details of the crisis years that changed the character of the game, with coaches and rules committee members the featured players. David M. Nelson, who served on the NCAA Rules Committee longer than Walter Camp, provides personal insight into all Rules Committee meetings since 1958, as well as an appendix - chronological and by rule - listing every change since 1876." "Ever since the first two human beings kicked, threw, or batted an object competitively, there have been playing rules. Games are mentioned in the Bible, and the Romans brought football's forerunner to Britain, from where it was exported to the United States. It was in the United States that college students decided to make their game rugby rather than soccer. Although the students invented United States football and made the first rules, their ruling power was eventually lost to the faculty, administrators, coaches, rules committees, and the NCAA." "Beginning as a brutal sport, football survived several crises before and after the turn of the century, eventually becoming respectable. The 1931 injury crisis split the high school and college rules and the same year the professionals went their own way, with rules largely based on spectator appeal." "Today the sport is a national treasure primarily because of its playing rules, over seven hundred in total, which make college football unique among the world's team sports. Moreover, football remains an American game, never having the same impact in other countries as do baseball and basketball." "Rules make the game, but people make the rules. Football survived the major crises that threatened the game because committee members adhered to the precepts that had governed football since its inception. The game began with an attempt to have a consistent code of justice, personal accountability, and equality. In some sense the playing rules are a type of moral precept that explains in the simplest terms what can and cannot be done. The Football Code, which first prefaced the rules in 1916, makes the game - more than any other sport - a moral one because it sets standards for coaching, playing, sportsmanship, and officiating."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

From three recognized football and statistics experts comes a revealing and lively look at the pro game, with new stats, unusual facts and figures, revolutionary strategies, and keys to picking the winners.

The weather is turning cooler and game day has finally arrived in the jungle. Leo Lion and Tenarious Tiger were voted the coach and the captain of their football teams. Tiger is very fired up because Lions team has won three years in a row. All of the animals on both teams have been working very hard to get in shape and prepare for the big game. They all know the importance of being physically fit in order to play their best and help their team win the game. So, buckle up your chin strap and lets see if Tiger can pull off the upset this year. Who will be the heroes, who will win The Jungle Football Game, and who will be voted the much desired Most Valuable Player Award? Join Coach Bobby Agee as he introduces children to the greatest American game of allfootball. Through the use of their favorite jungle animals, the children will learn some of the basic concepts and skills of the game, such as touchdowns, extra points, kickoffs, blocking, tackling, and kicking the football.