A leather football used during the 1932 college football season

In Northern America, a football (also called a pigskin)[1] is a ball, roughly in the form of a lemon,[2] used in the context of playing gridiron football. Footballs are often made of cowhide leather, as such a material is required in professional and collegiate football, although footballs used in recreation and organized youth leagues may be made of rubber, plastic or composite leather (high school football rule books still allow inexpensive all-rubber footballs, though they are less common than leather).

In Unicode the ball is represented by the emoji character U+1F3C8 🏈 AMERICAN FOOTBALL.

History

Early balls

Richard Lindon with two rugby union balls in 1880
A white football signed by the members of the 1935 Collegiate All-Star Team, including future U.S. president Gerald Ford

In the 1860s, manufactured inflatable balls were introduced through the innovations of English shoemaker Richard Lindon. These were much more regular in shape than the handmade balls of earlier times, making kicking and carrying easier. These early footballs were plum-shaped.[3]

Some teams used to have white footballs for purposes of night practice.[4]

The football changed in 1934, with a rule change that tapered the ball at the ends more and reduced the size around the middle. This new, sleeker ball made it much easier to handle, particularly for passers, while at the same time making the drop kick unreliable and obsolete.[5] Hugh "Shorty" Ray, at the time a college football official and later the NFL's head of officiating, is generally credited with conceiving the pointed football.[6]

"The Duke"

From 1941 through 1969 and since 2006, the official game ball of the National Football League (NFL) has been stamped with the nickname "The Duke" in honor of Wellington Mara, the longtime owner of the New York Giants, who was named after the Duke of Wellington by his father, Tim Mara, founder and first owner of the Giants. Wilson Sporting Goods, the manufacturer of the NFL ball since 1941, named the ball after Wellington Mara at the urging of George Halas, the owner and head coach of the Chicago Bears, to reward Tim Mara for arranging the contract that made Wilson the official supplier of footballs to the NFL.[7]

The nickname was originally used until 1970, when Wilson changed the game ball upon the National Football League-American Football League merger. Wellington Mara died in 2005 (at age 89), and Wilson returned "The Duke" to the game ball the following year in his honor.[7]

Properties

Early American footballs were essentially rugby balls, later redesigned to make them easier to throw. In this 1907 photo, Bradbury Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass, demonstrates an "Overhand spiral—fingers on lacing"[8]

Coach John Heisman (the namesake for today's Heisman Trophy) was a Shakespearean actor in the offseason, and would open each season by saying to his freshmen football players:

NFL regulations

A Wilson modern American football, as used in the National Football League

In an NFL game, the home team must have 36 balls for an outdoor game or 24 for an indoor game, and they must be available for the referee to test with a pressure gauge two and a half hours before the game to keep players from cheating. Twelve new footballs, sealed in a special box and shipped by the manufacturer, are opened in the officials' locker room two hours and 15 minutes before the game. These balls are specially marked with the letter "K" and are used exclusively for the kicking game. The visiting team may also present 12 balls to the referee for outdoor games for inspection.[19] The NFL introduced kicking balls (K-balls) to prevent teams from doctoring balls after the NFL Competition Committee determined that teams conditioned balls so they would fly higher and travel further.[20]

Since 1941, Horween Leather Company has been the exclusive supplier of leather for National Football League footballs.[21][22][23] The arrangement was established by Arnold Horween, who had played and coached in the NFL.[24] Horween Leather Company also supplies leather to Spalding, which, at one time, supplied game balls to the now-defunct Arena Football League.[25] Despite the moniker "pigskin" sometimes used to refer to footballs, cow leather is used.[26]

Recreational variations

Minnesota Vikings kicker Fred Cox, during his NFL career, is credited with developing an all-polyurethane foam football, which he sold to Nerf.[27] Nerf later added the vortex football, also made of foam, with a smaller body and torpedo tail fins, resembling a Ketchum Grenade. Foam footballs such as Nerf's, especially the vortex football, can be thrown greater distances than a traditional air-filled leather or rubber ball,[28] but their kicking range is much shorter, with the vortex football being practically unusable for kicking.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Why is a Football Called a "Pigskin"?". May 4, 2015. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  2. ↑ Weisstein, Eric W. "Lemon Surface". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
  3. ↑ Trueman, Nigel. "Rugby Football History". Archived from the original on March 25, 2015. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  4. ↑ Wiley Lee Umphlett (1992). Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 141–142, 144, 148, 151–152. ISBN 9780313284045.
  5. ↑ Pearson, The People History -- Steve. "History of The Game Of Football Including The NFL and College Football". Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  6. ↑ Seymour Smith (September 14, 1966). "Pro Football To Honor Ray: Rules Advisor's Ideas Gave Game Needed Boost". The Sun (Baltimore). p. C4. Archived from the original on October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  7. 1 2 Frassinelli, Mike (January 30, 2014). "Why is the NFL football called The Duke?". NJ.com. Archived from the original on March 27, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  8. ↑ Cochems, Eddie, "The Forward Pass and On-Side Kick", Spalding's How to Play Foot Ball, American Sports Publishing, Walter Camp, Editor, Revised 1907 edition
  9. ↑ Pees, Samuel T. "John Heisman, Football Coach". Oil History. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  10. ↑ Kerry Byrne. "'The Duke' is back!" (subtitle - "The white stripes")". Coldhardfootballfacts.com. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2006.
  11. ↑ "'Watch the clock' is new NFL game". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. March 18, 1974. p. 14.
  12. ↑ "NFL delays wider field but bans striped football". Pittsburgh Press. UPI. March 18, 1976. p. 32.
  13. ↑ "NFL adds end-zone clocks". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Idaho. Associated Press. March 18, 1976. p. 2B.
  14. ↑ "Rule 2: The Ball" (PDF). National Football League. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  15. ↑ "CFL to roll out new ball for 2018 season". March 19, 2018. Archived from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  16. ↑ "The AFL's Skinny Football". June 17, 2014.
  17. ↑ Beschloss, Michael (January 24, 2015). "Before the Bowl Was Super". New York Times. Archived from the original on January 14, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  18. ↑ Alam, Firoz; Smith, Sean; Chowdhury, Harun; Moria, Hazim (2012). "Aerodynamic drag measurement of American footballs". Procedia Engineering. 34: 98–103. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.04.018.
  19. ↑ "2020 NFL Rulebook | NFL Football Operations". operations.nfl.com. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  20. ↑ Some kickers, punters don't favor special teams K-Ball, January 10, 2007, archived from the original on December 7, 2020, retrieved December 8, 2020 – via Associated Press
  21. ↑ "The NFL's centenarians". Profootballhof.com. February 7, 2010. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  22. ↑ Scott Oldham (October 2001). "Bombs Away". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  23. ↑ John Maxymuk (2012). NFL Head Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary, 1920–2011. McFarland. ISBN 9780786465576. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  24. ↑ Barbara Rolek (October 27, 2003). "Horween's leather bound by tradition". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  25. ↑ Horween Leather Company. encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  26. ↑ Howard Wolinsky (May 16, 2008). "Horween Leather Faces an Uncertain Future". Business Week. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  27. ↑ "Ex-Vikings kicker Fred Cox, inventor of Nerf football, dies at 80". ESPN.com. November 21, 2019. Archived from the original on November 22, 2019. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  28. ↑ "Nerf Sports". Hasbro. Archived from the original on December 26, 2015. Retrieved January 24, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_(gridiron_football)