TIL that American Football was first played with an inflated pigs bladder

Forms of American Football have been played for hundreds of years. With the first forms possibly even dating back to biblical times... 

In 1911, a famous American Football historian wrote this about its origins:

"... abundant evidence may be marshalled to prove that this is the oldest outdoor game in existence. In the 22nd chapter of Isaiah is found the verse, "He will turn and toss thee like a ball." This allusion, slight as it may be, is sufficient unto the antiquary to indicate that some sort of game with a ball existed as early as 750 years before the Christian era, the epoch customarily assigned to the Book of Isaiah. A more specific allusion of the same period, however, is the passage in the Sixth Book of the Odyssey of Homer familiar to all school boys: "Then having bathed and anointed well with oil they took their midday meal upon the river's banks and anon when satisfied with food they played a game of ball."

That is likely very different than what we see today, but if this is true it would make football one of the oldest outdoor games in existence.

The first forms of the football that we have today started in Europe as far back as the medieval times and was known as "Mob Ball". It started with neighboring towns or villages competing against one another. There would be an unlimited number of players on each side who would clash in a giant scrum with each side struggling to drag or carry an inflated pig's bladder to markers at each end of the town. The only rules were that the "game" could not involve murder or manslaughter. 

By some accounts the teams could move the ball towards the marker by any means possible including kicking, carrying, dragging, or throwing. In some cases instead of trying to take the ball to markers in order to score, the town's would attempt to kick the ball into the balcony of the opponent's church. As one could imagine these medieval games often turned violent and bloody and were eventually outlawed. 

Then in the early 1800's mob ball gained popularity in North America. College students began to organize intramural games. In 1827 Harvard University started a tradition known as "Bloody Monday" where a group of freshman would battle a group of sophomores in a giant game of mob ball. The game quickly became a tradition and would gain in popularity and intensity as the years went on. In 1860 the local police and college authorities agreed that mob ball had to go because of the rowdy behavior, drunkenness and violence that often accompanied it. 

Modern day football that we know today would eventually evolve from parts of mob ball, rugby, and soccer. 

I guess that is why they call it a "pig skin" :)

Live well my friends!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_history_of_American_football

Image Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_history_of_American_football

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