On November 12, 1892, Pro football made its worldwide debut. It was the game between the Pittsburgh Athletic Club and the Allegheny Athletic Association. William Pudge Heffelfinger became the first official football player. He was paid 500 dollars illegally to play. They didn’t find out until 80 years later when they found an expense report that clearly showed the amount of money he received and the date of which he acquired the payment. The document containing the information about his payment is commonly known as “pro football’s birth certificate.” When it was time for the game, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club players noticed that Heffelfinger was in an Allegheny Athletic Association uniform. The Pittsburgh coach took his team off the field because fans of both sides had bet on the game and the Allegheny Athletic Association had obviously had the better chance of winning. It was finally agreed after a lot of arguing that the game would be played as a scrimmage and that all bets would be off. The arguing lasted so long that the game had to be shortened down to two 30 minute halves instead of the two 45 minute halves. That was the day that forever changed sports history.
When football was first introduced in the early 1860s, players weren’t required to wear helmets, or in their …show more content…
Neither were shoulder pads. The only reason they were used was when the player was concerned for his own safety. Like helmets, shoulder pads were also made out of just leather. In the 1960s, they replaced the leather shoulder pads with hard plastic to help reduce shoulder and rib injuries. They worked for the most part but one problem did spring up. The shoulder pads made the players very hot and made them overheat. A study occurred where they tried to figure out which fabric would prevent the players from overheating as bad. They moved on to synthetic fibers to make the athletes more comfortable by making the shoulder pads