Medieval Football - Organized Chaos
Football was invented in the Middle Ages. But it was a vastly different game than the one that’s played today.
First things first, what does football mean? In the USA, it means Gridiron / Tackle / American Football. But for the rest of the world, it means Soccer / Kicking / International Football. Medieval football was a combination of the two, with a side of rugby, a dash of hockey, and a splash of capture the flag.
The oldest reference to Foot-Ball comes from the Historia Brittonum, written in ~800 AD by Nennius, a monk from Wales. On the continent, the game was called La Soule. The ball was made from a stuffed pig’s bladder or a chunk of wood wrapped in cloth and leather. There wasn’t a regulation size, much less a commemorative edition ball.
There were probably rules to the game, but from modern times, it just looks like chaos ball. The rules weren’t written down, probably because nobody could read back then, but the point was simple: get the ball to the goal. How? However you can. Kick it, throw it, run with it, hit it with a stick. Just move the ball.
Can you tackle the guy with the ball? Of course you can! Can you tackle just about anybody for just about any reason? Of course! How many people per side? However many people showed up that day. Can you play when armed with a knife? Have you been paying attention? Just get the dang ball! Get it! GET THE BALL!!!
Games could happen whenever, but usually were held on a major holiday like Christmas or Easter. Some major events might go for two days, starting Fat Tuesday and going through Ash Wednesday. A common way to play the game would be to pit neighboring parishes against each other. Everyone who wanted to play would gather at the border where the two parishes meet, some local dignitary would throw the ball into the air, and then it was GAME ON!
From there it was a semi-organized brawl. Just like kindergarteners playing soccer today, everyone ran directly towards the ball, then tried to move it, however possible, toward the goal, which was sometimes the local church building. The mob crashed over the river and through the woods and across the fields, careening through whatever was in the way. Johnny Cash wasn’t writing about medieval football, but he said it well anyway: “Kicking and a-gouging and the mud and the blood and the beer.” Fun times.
As you might expect, injuries were common during a match. Over the years, several people died playing the game. In 1280, a player was killed during a game in Northumberland when he “ran into an opponent’s dagger.” That sounds like the extreme version of when you were a kid and your brother started punching the air, then walking towards you saying, “I’m just moving my arm. It’s your fault if you get in the way and get hit.”
Obviously, the common people having this much fun and not doing work that could be taxed irritated many medieval rulers. In 1331, King Philip VI of France banned games of La Soule. In 1363, King Edward III of England followed suit and shut the game down. King James I of Scotland banned football in 1424, and banned golf too for good measure.
Although the Powers That Be wanted to shut football down for good, the sport would persist until it became the more organized game you know today. Football is the most popular sport in the world, be it American football in the USA or soccer / futbol in the rest of the world. These days the players mostly follow the rules and obey the referee’s whistle. Except for Australian rules football. Not even the Aussies know the rules of that game.
Football, in both its main forms, is the most popular spectator sport in the world. Every year, the Super Bowl is the most watched broadcast of the year, with more than 100 million people watching at home. The 2022 FIFA World Cup final game was watched by 1.5 billion people. That’s a lot of eyeballs for advertisers, and that’s big business.
The most interesting business aspect of international football is watching the top professional players from the top teams and leagues all abandon the team that is their job for the team that represents their country. While every player of course wants to win the championship for their day-job team, they have 10x the devotion to winning for their country. Maybe it says something about passion and nationalism over money and career. Countries fighting it out on the football pitch is definitely better than Europe periodically going to war every few decades.
The most interesting business aspect of American football is how all leagues at all levels limit the supply of games so that every game becomes an event. From high school to college to the pros, your team only plays one game a week for a limited number of weeks. Every game is critical, so every game is an event, demanding all eyeballs on the screen.
And then all those smaller event games lead up to the biggest event game of the year, the championship that serves as a national secular holiday. Even people who don’t watch a game all year tune in to watch commercials and eat delicious but terrible-for-you foods. Bosses, set an 8:00 AM meeting on the Monday after the Super Bowl - and expect anyone to show up - at your own risk.
