Forget his role in building the Panama Canal or his responsibility for America’s emergence as a world superpower with our victory in the Spanish-American War.<\/p>\n
Teddy Roosevelt is the reason America has football.<\/p>\n
In most other countries around the globe, “football” is soccer, the world’s most popular sport. However,\u00a0in America, it evolved from a\u00a0controversial, injury-ridden corruption of rugby — where renegade players threw the ball forward, contrary to the rules.<\/p>\n
And President Theodore Roosevelt deserves the credit.<\/p>\n
The Republican\u00a0was an avid supporter \u2013 one author says savior<\/em> \u2013 of the sport of American football.<\/p>\n Even today other countries watch\u00a0the game\u00a0in bewilderment. It has been described as soccer in\u00a0slow motion played by giants using a mishapen ball that won’t roll — a\u00a0purely American game\u00a0in which players wearing armor that makes their shoulders appear five-feet-wide\u00a0— must stop and have a committee meeting everytime the ball or ball-carrier’s body touches the ground.<\/p>\n