Understanding football is the key to knowing why it is so popular. Many other sports cannot compare to the impact football has on players and fans like this. We live in a very diverse world and all entertainment comes naturally to us. Gaming seems to be the most important entertainment in our human society today. We yearn for Gladiator-style sports and games for public entertainment. To better understand why football is popular today, we must first look back at the history of the sport. The first vestiges of what would become American football can be found in the 19th century. century in games played by students at America's elite schools and universities. A particularly violent running game was played at Princeton University around 1820, and around this time students at Dartmouth College also played a kicking game. The rules of the Dartmouth game, known as "Old Division Football", were published in 1871. The first racing game to codify its rules was the popular English sport, rugby, in 1845 ("A Brief History of Football” para.2). Today, the NFL has the highest attendance of any other sport in America. Over the years, it has grown to astronomical proportions and continues to grow every day. According to the Encyclopedia of International Sports Studies, overall annual attendance increased from three million at the start of former Commissioner Pete Roselle's term in 1960, to seventeen million by the end of his term in 1989, and 400 million Viewers watched the 1989 Super Bowl XXIII (pp. 932-933). Crazy, right? Yes, that's what I thought. But, without Pete, I really don't think the NFL would be as popular today. According to a reporter, "Unlike most professional athletes... in the middle of the newspaper... he receives $6 million a year from the state of Louisiana as an incentive not to move his team." This is something I didn't know and makes you think about where your taxes are going. The NFL salary cap ensures that every team, no matter where they come from, is placed on an equal footing (K., Jack, par. 10). The 16-game football season is crucial to the success of its business. The one game per week format made the need for football more widespread. In business terms, it's supply and demand. As the sport has less supply of football matches, the demand increases (k.par.4). No matter how great a person is, if the rest of their team doesn't get the grade, they will never win. So many different teams and so many different play styles ensure that no two games are ever the same. Simply an incredible thing to watch. It truly is the ultimate team sport.