Pudge Heffelfinger goes pro!

What's in a name? If you go to another country and talk about football, chances are that the person will assume you are talking about what we, in America, call soccer. Although soccer and football share a name in many places, American football was actually born from rugby and has less in common with soccer.

American football has long since evolved to become what it is today. College students in the 1800s are credited with playing early games that were a fusion of rugby and new rules, similar to modern football

It's disputed when the first game of football was actually played. But in 1875, Harvard and Tufts Universities competed in a game that closely resembles what we know as football today. The students were able to pick up the ball (which was shaped more like an egg and not a soccer ball) and were able to stop players with the ball by tackling. The first standardized rules for American football were written in 1876 and these rules set American football apart from rugby.

In 1892, Pudge Heffelfinger became the first person to ever be paid to play American football, when he was paid $500 by an Allegheny, PA team to play against another local athletic club's team.

In the early 20th century, many cities had football teams, but there was not one set of rules that all teams followed. This led to the creation of a league called the American Professional Football Conference in 1920 and standard rules were established. In 1922, the league had 18 teams and renamed itself the National Football League -- the NFL we know today.