football — Bunk History

Illustration of man throwing football to sports broadcaster.

Before and After the Contest: Wraparound Sportscasting Through the Ages

National Football League pre- and postgame shows have become a testing ground for novel technology in the waning days of linear television.

by Chloe Lizotte via Mubi on August 1, 2024

Baltimore Colts' Jim O'Brien making a game-winning field goal kick in Super Bowl V in Miami, 1971.

The Man Who Changed Field Goals Forever

A Hungarian immigrant first brought the soccer style field kick to the NFL.

by Russ Crawford via Made By History on February 8, 2024

The son of Robert "Whitey" Fuller, director of publicity for Dartmouth athletics, and other children playing football, Dartmouth, 1946.

'Hit the Line Hard'

During the cold war, football’s violence became precisely its point.

by Jake Nevins via New York Review of Books on February 12, 2023

NFL bust broken at the head by Liam Eisenberg.

The Forgotten History of Head Injuries in Sports

Stephen Casper, a medical historian, argues that the danger of C.T.E. used to be widely acknowledged. How did we unlearn what we once knew?

by Ingfei Chen via The New Yorker on February 11, 2023

Inmates playing touch football at Moberly Correctional Center in Moberly, MO, 1990.

The First Famous Football Team Behind Bars

Sing Sing's football team, The Black Sheep, ascended to fame even though its players were incarcerated. One player was so good, he signed with the Eagles.

by Joshua Finnell via JSTOR Daily on February 8, 2023

UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. and USC forward Isaiah Mobley during an NCAA game March 5 in Los Angeles.

History Explains Why It Makes Sense for USC and UCLA to Join the Big Ten

It's the resurrection of an old dream.

by Andrew McGregor via Made By History on July 11, 2022

Team photo of the Pacesetters in their uniforms.

How One Women’s Football Team Took Control Away From the Men

The Columbus Pacesetters weren’t satisfied being an afterthought or a gimmick, so they bought their franchise and the ability to make decisions for themselves.

by Britni de la Cretaz, Lyndsey D'Arcangelo via Sports Illustrated on October 29, 2021

Almost Undefeated: The Forgotten Football Upset of 1976

How the Toledo Troopers, the most dominant female football team of all time, met their match.

by Britni de la Cretaz via Longreads on February 1, 2019

How Big Bonuses for Winning Coaches Became a Tradition in College Football

These bonuses are not a reaction to a multi-billion-dollar market that rewards winning – they are the foundation of it.

by Jasmine E. Harris via The Conversation on December 20, 2018

Football players kneeling in prayer on the field.

Football and the Political Act of Prayer

In football, prayer is—and has always been—political.

by Paul Putz via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on August 28, 2018

A souvenir superbowl 53 football outside of a stadium

The NFL: America’s Socialist Utopia

The Super Bowl might be a capitalist bonanza — but its creation was the ultimate socialist act.

by Jesse Berrett via Made By History on February 2, 2018

A 1902 football game mid-play, with men from both sides rushing at each other

God and the Gridiron Game

America's obsession with football is nearly as old as the game itself.

by Paul Putz, Hunter Hampton via Christianity Today on September 6, 2017

The 1879 Yale Football Team posing for a photo with captain Walter Camp.

What Would the Father of American Football Make of the Modern Game?

Walter Camp praised the sport as a way to toughen up élite young white men. Despite changes to the game and society, his legacy remains.

by Ian Crouch via The New Yorker on November 19, 2015

Football player on the ground, grabbing his head in pain.

‘Another Player Down’

How concern about injuries is changing sports.

via Retro Report on November 20, 2023

Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts shaking hands at Super Bowl 57.

It Took Until 2023 for Two Black QBs to Start in a Super Bowl. Here’s Why.

Ideas dating back to slavery have minimized opportunities for Black quarterbacks in the NFL.

by Kate Aguilar via Made By History on February 12, 2023

Harold "Red" Grange, one of the biggest stars of the early NFL.

NFL Television Broadcasting and the Federal Courts

The NFL's control over entertainment.

by Jake Kobrick via Federal Judicial Center on January 24, 2023

White students, including Jerry Jones, at Arkansas' North Little Rock High blocked the doors of the school Sept. 9, 1957, denying access to six Black students.

Jerry Jones Helped Transform the NFL, Except When It Comes To Race

Decades after the segregation battles of his youth, Jerry Jones has modernized the NFL’s revenue model but hasn’t hired a Black head coach.

by David Maraniss, Sally Jenkins via Washington Post on November 23, 2022

Action shot of the Detroit Lions playing the Chicago Bears in 1934.

How the NFL Popularized Thanksgiving Day Football

The NFL holiday tradition took off in 1934, when the Detroit Lions hosted the unbeaten Chicago Bears in a game broadcast nationally on radio.

by Chris Mueller via HISTORY on November 10, 2021

How Marvin Gaye Earned a Tryout for the Detroit Lions

On the 50th anniversary of ‘What’s Going On,’ a look back on Gaye's onetime dream to become a professional football player.

by Justin Tinsley via Andscape on May 21, 2021

A Kansas City Chiefs fan in a headdress.

How the Kansas City Chiefs Got Their Name and the Boy Scout Tribe of Mic-O-Say

The Mic-O-Say was founded in 1925, under the leadership of Harold Roe Bartle, a two-term Kansas City mayor known in his social circles as ‘Chief.’

by Vincent Schilling via Indian Country Today on September 21, 2019

Agency, Order and Sport in the Age of Trump

Jim Thorpe, Jack Johnson, and the sporting middle ground.

by Andrew McGregor via Public Seminar on July 18, 2018

‘Some Observations on the NFL and Negro Players’

Newly discovered league memo from 1966 anticipates controversies over the Colin Kaepernick protest.

by Paul Lukas via Andscape on February 1, 2018

High school student in Shreveport.

Taking a Knee and Taking Down a Monument

The struggle over Shreveport's Confederate monument converges with talk about a national anthem protest by high-schoolers.

by Brent McDonald via New York Times Op-Docs on January 9, 2018

How the National Anthem Got Tangled Up With American Sports

Like most relationships, it’s complicated.

by Tevi Troy via Politico Magazine on September 26, 2017

Person carrying live Thanksgiving turkey

American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving

Why Pilgrims would be stunned by our "traditional" Thanksgiving table, and other surprising truths about the invention of our national holiday.

via BackStory on November 25, 2016

Locker-Room Liberty

Athletes who helped shape our times and the economic freedom that enabled them.

by Matt Welch via Reason on May 1, 2005

"College Sports: A History"

A new book considers the challenges of controlling the commercialization of college sports.

by Glenn C. Altschuler, David Wippman via Inside Higher Ed on November 26, 2024

The San Francisco 49ers running onto a football field led by their mascot, a gold prospector.

Who Were the Real 49ers?

San Francisco 49ers fans may feel like their team name is less racist than the “Chiefs,” but given the history of the Gold Rush, they shouldn’t be so smug.

by Simon Moya-Smith via The Nation on February 9, 2024

March Madness Stadium

A Harsh Reality Lies Beneath the Glory of March Madness

Despite captivating the nation with their athleticism every March, collegiate basktball players remain an exploited labor force for the profit of the NCAA.

by Theresa Runstedtler via CNN on March 18, 2023

Alcorn State University's Origional Golden Girls.

Sass And Shimmer: The Dazzling History Of Black Majorettes And Dance Lines

Beginning in the 1960s, young Black majorettes and dance troupes created a fascinating culture. This is the story of how they did it.

by Alecia Taylor, Brooklyn White via Essence on October 10, 2022

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