# Football field marking question (American football)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-field-marking-question-american-football/639415>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [October 31, 2012, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-field-marking-question-american-football/639415 "2012-10-31T09:48:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-field-marking-question-american-football/639415/21 "2012-11-01T15:58:48Z")

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> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#):
>
> I read somewhere (can’t find it now) that the name originated because the game is played on foot, as opposed to horseback.

I’ve posted it a couple of times in previous threads such as [this one from 2004](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5188555&postcount=9). To quote myself from that thread:

> [@brad\_d](#):
>
> My source for all of this is [The Simplest Game](http://www.amazon.com/The-Simplest-Game-Intelligent-Soccer/dp/0028604016), by Paul Gardner. It’s a book about (what’s known in the US as) soccer, but there’s some interesting info in there about the origin of the sport and the “football” name. Page numbers for my citations are from the 3rd edition.
> 
> Specifically, this tidbit from the first paragraph of Chapter 1 (p.1): _“The word football came into use in England in the mid-fourteenth century to describe a game played not with the feet but on foot, in order to distinguish it from the pastimes that were played on horseback.”_
> 
> The 1300’s version of “football” bore scant resemblance to either modern game. The ball was carried, kicked, thrown, or whatever in what sounds like the ultimate in “barbarian ball”. Gardner writes (p.1), “The most notable feature of the contests was an absence of rules.”

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**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-field-marking-question-american-football/639415/22 "2012-11-02T18:34:09Z")

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Purpose of the gridiron: certain play types (forward pass and certain runs, IIRC) required the player to be more than 5 yards laterally from where the ball was snapped. The endzone to endzone lines assisted the officials in determining this. The sideline to sideline yard lines were added to assist with judging if sufficient distance was gained (or at one time, lost!) for a first down.

The game is called football because that was the name used for the loosely organized games that eventually became codified as Association Football, Rugby football, American football, Australian rules football, etc.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-field-marking-question-american-football/639415/23 "2012-11-09T06:54:21Z")

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I wish highschools had those closer hash marks for marching band purposes.

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