Summary: Super-Athletes In Football

Innovations in Football The early days of the National Football League were much different than they are now, in fact when it first started it was more of a regulated brawl than a sporting contest and forward passing was not permitted (Peterson 4). The game of football has positively progressed over the many years and as the game advances, so does the equipment, players, and coaches. It is beneficial for the game of football to progress with time for obvious safety reasons, and to also keep the passion and love for the sport alive. The equipment in the early part of the game was very basic compared to what it is now. The average player would wear a flimsy leather helmet, some thin plastic shoulder pads, and a pair of stiff high-top cleats. The field used to be 110 yards from goal line to goal line, and a foot more narrow than it is now. The ball used to be made of pigskin, and players were essentially slower, weaker, and less talented than the super-athletes of todays game (Peterson 16).
These are human beings that have stood out as a superstar in every level of their sports career (Middle School, High School, College, etc.) The average size of a NFL athlete in the 1940s was 5’11 and 198 pounds, which is close to the measurements of todays league’s smallest players. The players in 2012 had an average size of 6’5 and weighed in at 225 pounds, so as you can see there has been a sufficient increase in size and weight. In addition to that, NFL teams have started to introduce very complex playbooks to their players, so you often find that the common stereotype of “unintelligent” football players is slowly diminishing. The players coming into the league in the past couple years have had a substantially higher “football IQ” than those of the players before them (Richard