Some situations appear to have always been, but began somewhere
As fans, we watch a game of football in person or on the tube. We enjoy the contest, especially if our team wins.
But just about everything you see on the field wasn’t always part of the game. The game of American Football has evolved from its beginnings in the late 1800s. Rules are added constantly. Things change. Actions are altered. Rules are adopted to make the game easier to play or to assist in player safety.
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American Football evolved from the game of rugby. Rugby began as a new sport that sprang up from soccer. Both rugby and American Football still have circumstances, rules, strategy, equipment, and terminology from the game of soccer.
Rugby has a kickoff because soccer has a kickoff. American Football just followed their lead. In soccer, there are punts, interceptions, tackles, offsides, halftimes, sudden death, goal lines, sidelines, changing ends of the field, the word “goal,” positions called fullbacks, halfbacks, and center, plus have 11 players that compete on the field. Sound familiar?
There are also functions during the game of American Football that we see every competition, but just don’t notice because it has always been this way.
Would you notice if the goal posts were painted red instead of yellow? Of course, but their origins were they were painted white. What about all those lines on a football field? Every 10 yards, there is a number painted on the field to distinguish each increment of 10, which makes sense since there are four downs to make 10 yards before a new set of downs is obtained.
But why is there a line also painted every five yards, in between the 10-yard increments? Why does the game need these lines? The origins of the game were that one team was given 15 plays to go the length of the field and score. That was later changed to the offense given three plays to make five yards, and if successful, given a new set of downs. And even though the distance was later changed to 10 yards, the markings at every five-yard increment were already an institution and have remained.
What else goes on in every game that has its own story? There isn’t enough ink to cover them all, but here are five to start us off with.
Referee zebra stripes
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Almost every NFL team has stripes somewhere on its uniform or helmet. It is a way to incorporate other accent colors into their look. Back before World War II, several teams used striping on the front or sleeves of their jerseys. This trend came from soccer and remains popular even today.
The game referees wear black pants and shoes, and shirts that have vertical black and white stripes. These men are affectionately called “zebras” during a contest. In the origins of the game, all referees wore solid white apparel from their shirts and pants, with a black bow tie and black leggings, and a white British walking cap. Why the change, and when?
The fact that the game officials wear black and white striped shirts is just something we are used to. But it wasn’t always what it is today.
The reason for the color choice and the striping is on purpose. It is designed to distinguish referees from players, and the color choice is to provide the idea of being neutral.
Similar to baseball, the home team wore white or light-colored jerseys while the visiting team was adorned with darker clothing. The problem was, the referee dressed in all-white would sometimes be confused with a teammate.
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A longtime high-school and college sports official from Michigan named Lloyd Olds was working a college game in which one team was wearing all-white uniforms. Olds was a field judge in a game between Michigan State Normal College and an Arizona college played in Ypsilanti, Michigan. On one play, the quarterback threw a pass to Olds, who dropped the ball on purpose.
Olds had a friend in the sporting goods business and went to visit him at Moe’s Sports Shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He ordered a white button-down shirt with black fabric stripes sewn on the front, back, and sleeves, which would be appropriate no matter what color any of the teams were wearing. He began to wear these shirts during games. The NFL adopted the zebra shirt for their officials in 1941 from Olds’ original design.
When the American Football League was in business, they tried hard to be different in many ways from the established league. Their referees wore red stripes instead of the common black and white design.
Time kept on the field
Watching a soccer game, right before halftime, as the game clock is winding down, an electronic sign is raised along the sidelines with the numeral “6” on it. The entire stadium sees this and understands what the Number 6 is for. It means that three more minutes is added to the first half of play. Why?
The game of soccer originated from Roman soldiers as a method to keep them in shape. But it was the English who wrote the rules and placed them on paper. Now, everyone plays by the same rules no matter where your team travels.
The English decided to install a method to stop teams from wasting the game clock. Often, a team would fake an injury in the waning moments, which would squander valuable clock. Or take their time with substitutions. Over-celebration of a goal scored can cost minutes. Or any number of situations designed to keep the seconds ticking away without actually playing.
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So, the referee calculates how much time-wasting and stoppage occurred and adds it back to the game clock. In the example above, it was three minutes for that first half.
The key component here is that the referee decided this. The reason? The game clock is on his wrist. It’s not on the scoreboard; the official time is located on his wristwatch.
The game of American Football uses the same method. The stadium clock at an NFL game may show how much time remains, but the actual “official time” is on a wristwatch. That responsibility was held by the field judge or umpire for the longest duration, but now it is the referee’s responsibility.
How many times has the referee turned on his microphone and asked the stadium clock keeper to add or delete time from the stadium clock?
That is because the stadium clock keeper doesn’t keep the official time. That duty is kept on the field just like in soccer today. Basically, the stadium clock is for reference only.
Two-minute warning
This portion of the game affects the game clock. It is only performed in the professional ranks, such as the National Football League. Other leagues like Arena Football One, Canadian Football League, and the United Football League all have this rule, although the time remaining may be different.
When the game clock winds down to two minutes to play in the second and fourth quarters in the NFL, the game is stopped, similar to a timeout. The amount of time elapsed for this stoppage is also two minutes in duration.
What is the function of this rule? The long answer is: For over half of the history of the NFL, the lack of scoreboards and the fact that the official time is kept on the field was an issue for players, coaches, and fans, and a warning was needed.
Because soccer kept the time on the field, American Football did the same. As crowds for games became larger, patrons wanted to know how much time was left in each quarter, especially at the end of the game. The problem was that most NFL stadiums used baseball parks, which had time-of-day clocks but had no use for game clocks. Essentially, the only person in the stadium who knew how much time was left was the game official who wore the wristwatch.
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After installing the clocks in NFL stadiums in the 1930s, the official game time remained with the Umpire. This meant the clock on the wall was not necessarily the correct time left in each quarter, but was used more as a “reference point” so that fans, players, and coaches could at least get an idea of where the time stood in the game.
With this system, time at the end of each quarter would often be a lot less than was assumed. Coaches had their strategies and often needed to know where the game stood in situations of punting the ball with the hope that the defense would hold and their offense would get the ball back, or keep the ball and run a play on fourth down.
The stadium clock was ruled “unofficial.”
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Even before the NFL required stadiums to install game clocks in stadiums, players and coaches would have to ask the referee how much time was left. Fans and coaches became frustrated with this process, especially the surprise at the end of the second and fourth quarters that the time wasn’t nearly as much as was expected.
The NFL added the two-minute warning in 1942. Thus, a stoppage of time would be announced with two minutes remaining in the second and fourth quarters.
Today, it is just a standard practice that occurs in every game that we don’t even think about. Is it still needed?
The answer is no, but it will not be changed or eliminated. The main reason to keep it as is because it is considered premium advertising spots. Fans are glued to the TV as the game is winding down, and the stoppage adds some broadcast tension, building to the game’s conclusion.
Hash marks
There are certain things on every football field that are standard and iconic.
The first is the bright yellow goalposts standing so erect in the end zones. Another is the yard lines that cross the field with huge numbers displaying each line’s 10-yard increments. Each end zone usually has lettering inside, as the center field stripe is adorned with a team logo.
Finally, tick marks dot the entire length of the field with tandem markings and indicate every single yard. These are called “hash marks.” At every level, in every conference or league, whether it is indoors or outside in the elements, the playing field has hash marks.
What are these? Pretty simple. They are there to mark stuff and give the game officials an on-field location using visually measured distances.
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And not just used in American Football. Ice hockey has hash marks in its face-off circles that display to the referee where a player must be before the puck is dropped.
In American Football, two sets of hash marks travel the entire length of the field. At all levels except the professional ranks, the hash marks are measured to divide the playing field into thirds. This creates a middle section, then two outer areas, which makes one side wider while the other side is smaller in width.
In the pros, the hash marks line up with the width of the goalposts, thus cutting down the distances that determine the wide and short sides.
The main purpose of the hash marks is for ball placement. When the ball carrier leaves one section and is down near a sideline, the ball is placed at the nearest hash mark where the following play will begin, making a short side and a wide side once again.
It wasn’t always that way.
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In the origins of the game, wherever the ball carrier was tackled, the ball was placed right at that exact spot for the following play. If that meant several yards away from the sidelines, then the play began there. If the ball carrier went out of bounds, the referee placed the ball one yard inside the sideline, and the next play went off at that spot.
Nowadays, there are rules that state how many offensive linemen can line up along the line, and to which sides. But not back then. If the end guy was the center, then all of the other linemen lined up to one side, the ball was snapped, and off they went.
What changed?
The NFL began in 1920. There weren’t any divisions or conferences, or playoffs for that matter. Their season champion each year was the team that had the highest win percentage. In 1932, both the Portsmouth Spartans (6-1-4) and Chicago Bears (6-1-6) stood at the top of the league with different win-loss records, but tied for win percentage. Tie games were not counted in those days. They discussed naming these two clubs co-champions, but it was decided to hold a one-game playoff. Basically, it meant an extra gate since this was every team’s main revenue source.
The contest was scheduled for December 18th to be played at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the Bears’ home stadium, which held just over 41,000 for football. The Spartans’ stadium had a capacity of 8,500. The winner would be declared the 1932 NFL champs.
Days before the game, a blizzard hit Chicago. As the game date approached, it was decided to play the contest indoors at Chicago Stadium, home of the hockey Blackhawks. This meant a lot of modifications had to be made to adapt to football, and quickly.
Luckily, the ice had already been removed since the circus had just left, but all of the sideboards remained. With time restraints, it was decided to leave them up. The field was covered with tanbark and smelled of elephant manure. The size was reduced to 60 yards long from goal line to goal line, by 45 yards wide. There were 10-yard end zones at each end, but the goal posts were moved from the goal line to the back of the end zone, a first.
Each time either offense crossed the 30-yard line, the ball was moved back 20 yards to allow for the shortened field. No field goals or drop kicks were allowed because of the short distances.
There was an issue with the hockey sideboards. Nobody could run out of bounds. So instead of starting the play one yard inside the sideline, Chicago founder/head coach George Halas divided the field in thirds, and then painted hash marks on both sides the length of the field. Any ball carrier who hits the sideboards, the following play would begin at the closest hash mark.
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During the 1933 off-season, the NFL owners liked several of the improvisations. They voted to move the goal posts to the back of the end zones, divided the league into two divisions, and installed a one-game playoff between the two division winners to determine the league champs they entitled the “NFL Championship Game.” This game would later be renamed the “Super Bowl.”
And, they placed hash marks on every field for ball placement.
All of these rule changes were the first that the pro league installed that were different than college football.
Jersey nameplates
Every NFL club has certain standards that every team uses.
On their helmets is an NFL logo, plus an American flag. On the front of each jersey is another NFL logo. The sidelines of each game are a uniform cop who makes sure that socks are pulled up, jerseys are tucked in, cleats and sweat bands don’t have any messages written on them, and no unauthorized sponsor logos are present.
And on the backside of each jersey above the player’s number, is a stitched nameplate with the player’s last name. It is also referred to as NOB, for “Name on back.”
It wasn’t always like that.
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In the 1969 NFL Championship Game, in addition to the victor being declared the NFL champion, the winner would play in an extra game entitled the “AFL-NFL Championship Game,” which pitted the NFL champs against the AFL champions.
It was the third game in this series after the AFL and NFL had agreed to merge beginning in 1970. The following year, this game would be re-named the “Super Bowl.”
In the “1969 NFL Championship Game” between the Cleveland Browns and the Minnesota Vikings, neither team had player nameplates on the back of their jersey. In the “1969 AFL Championship Game” that saw the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Oakland Raiders, both rosters had jersey nameplates.
The AFL did not invent player nameplates on the back of their jerseys. But this practice began in 1960, their first season of existence. This was an attempt to show fans the number of blue-chip college players the league had signed. Of the eight charter member teams, only the Titans of New York (later renamed the Jets) and the Denver Broncos did not have NOBs originally but later included this practice.
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The inventor of this trend came from pro baseball. The owner of the Chicago White Sox, Bill Veeck, had each player’s last name attached to the backside of their gray away jerseys above the numbers in 1960. The home white pinstriped jersey did not.
The AFL was always looking for things to differentiate itself from the established league. They instituted the two-point conversion, invented the sideline camera rover, had five TV cameras at games instead of three, wide-open passing offenses, and club revenue sharing.
Plus, jersey nameplates.
In the original XFL in 1999, they allowed players to put whatever they wanted on their NOBs. Rod Smart, a running back with the Las Vegas Outlaws, had “He Hate Me” imprinted on his nameplate.
Later in the season, when playing the Los Angeles Xtreme, two opposing players had nameplates that read “I Hate He” and “I Hate He Too” in their first contest and then “Still Hate He” and “Still Hate He Too” in their rematch. Smart’s game-worn jersey is on permanent display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
When the AFL and NFL merged in 1970, the 16 NFL teams adopted this practice. Today, we don’t even think about where this nameplate process originated. They just always have been there.