Yes, yes, I know. You were all good little students who came to class last week and waited the required 15 minutes for me to show up. You didn't just run off to the stadium and get drunk. I'm touched, really...Now let's get down to today's lesson, which happens to involve the stadium. Your environment shapes your sports. Think about that concept for a moment. If James Naismith couldn't find any peach baskets, would we be playing basketball today? If Scotland didn't have so many lush green fields, would we be playing golf?
Football is no different. Back in the middle of the 19th century, when the English were writing the rules to their various football games, the fields on which they played shaped their games. Schools that had open fields favored handling and tackling games, while schools that played inside cloisters favored kicking games, because rugby-style games inside cloisters often resulted in heads getting smashed on stone. That's one reason why we ended up with soccer.
The stadium is the environment that shapes the game. In 1903, with college football at the apparent height of its popularity, Harvard built a huge stadium for football. Little did anyone know that this monument to American football would have such a huge impact on the game for which it was built...
