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The First College Football Game

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On November 6, 1869 what was coined as the first college football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton. Later in the 1880s, Walter Camp, a rugby player from Yale, helped shape the rules that we now have in American Football. From then the game has evolved immensely and I want to help you understand it. The basic rules are the most important part of every game, but are extra important in football. Every drive for the offense will start with the opposing team kicking the ball off. If the ball is kicked out of the back of the end zone, that will result in a touchback, which means the offense starts on their own 20-yard line. A football field is 100 yards long with two end zones on each end. Each half you have what is considered your end zone which your defense will try to keep the other team’s offense from scoring touchdowns or field goals in. A touchdown is 6 points plus an extra point kick that is one point or a two-point conversion that are rarer and harder to convert. A field goal can be kicked at any point on offense is 3 points. So if you are on your own side of the 50-yard line, you would say you are on your own 20, 25, 30, ect. If you have the ball on you own 20-yard line it would be pretty difficult to make it 80 yards in the 4 plays you are given. That’s why you can earn what is called a first down every 10 yards. An offense has four plays to gain 10 yards to get a first down or the ball is turned over on downs, which means the other team will receive

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