geoffspins
Limey Saint
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Sorry if this is very familiar history to everybody here, but it was new to me. The piece was written for a British audience.
How pro football hooked America
By Mike Carlson
US sports analyst
First Super Bowl
Their relationship was similar to the traditional status of British rugby. College football was the equivalent of rugby union, an amateur game played on Saturdays by gentlemen. The college "bowl" games, played on New Year's Day, in sunny parts of the country between teams from different regions who normally never met during the autumn season, were the equivalent of rugby's internationals.
Baltimore Colts v New York Giants, Dec 1958
Pro football, in those days, was America's rugby league: played primarily in the industrial north, on Sundays; a hard game played by hard men.
The first Super Bowl took place in 1967. At that point it was already clear that pro football was a business about to boom, thanks to television. No sport has ever been better suited to the small screen than American football, with its breaks between plays to invite analysis, and utilise technological innovations like instant replay, split screens, and isolated cameras.
{Mod Edit - Rest of Article, click here, - please "tease and link" per the TOS - kd}
How pro football hooked America
By Mike Carlson
US sports analyst
First Super Bowl
Their relationship was similar to the traditional status of British rugby. College football was the equivalent of rugby union, an amateur game played on Saturdays by gentlemen. The college "bowl" games, played on New Year's Day, in sunny parts of the country between teams from different regions who normally never met during the autumn season, were the equivalent of rugby's internationals.
Baltimore Colts v New York Giants, Dec 1958
Pro football, in those days, was America's rugby league: played primarily in the industrial north, on Sundays; a hard game played by hard men.
The first Super Bowl took place in 1967. At that point it was already clear that pro football was a business about to boom, thanks to television. No sport has ever been better suited to the small screen than American football, with its breaks between plays to invite analysis, and utilise technological innovations like instant replay, split screens, and isolated cameras.
{Mod Edit - Rest of Article, click here, - please "tease and link" per the TOS - kd}
