Eight Man Football Is A Fast Growing Sport

Author: David Stargel

Author: David Stargel

Over the last 10 years, as football continues to grow in popularity at all levels, high school, college and pro, a new approach has been launched. Eight man football has grown in popularity, in particular during this decade. Now 18 states have official associations for eight man high school teams. This is where the sport, and its cousin, six man football, got its start. Smaller high schools, without the population of male athletes that bigger schools have, couldnt field competitive eleven man squads. As I looked for the history of the eight man game, it was difficult to find anything related to its start. Six man football was documented as having started around 1934. But since both sports are typically organized and tracked state by state, I havent found any details about the start of the eight man version. Rules and approaches differ from state to state, but for the most part, the game is similar to the eleven man version. Scoring is basically the same, although a lot of teams go for 2 point conversions rather than kicking extra points. This is mostly due to the lack of players who specialize in the kicking game. Many leagues use a slightly different football field. Many eight man associations use an field that is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide as compared to 100 yards long and 53 yards wide for normal eleven man games. Some eight man associations use fields that are 100 yards long but only 40 yards wide, and a few associations use standard dimension football fields. Formations do vary but the most common offensive formation uses a center, two guards, a tight end, a quarterback, two running backs, and a wide receiver. So the elimination of two tackles and one wide receiver is the most common change. On the defensive side of the ball, the most common change to formation involves the elimination of two defensive backs and one defensive lineman. A very common defensive formation is a 3-3-2 with a nose tackle, two defensive ends, three linebackers, and two defensive backs. In general, due to the smaller field and fewer players, the pace of eight man football is fast and scores are high. Its not uncommon to see scores like 72-64 on a regular basis. 100 point games are not unheard of. Many state associations utilize a mercy rule when a team gets up by 45 or more points as a result. I started reading about eight and six man football because my sons both played for very small high school football teams. Most of the time, due to a lack of depth, most players played both ways and on special teams. Both my sons were pretty much on the football field for every play of the entire game. Fortunately both my sons were able to play on good teams. But some of the teams we played really struggled to field a team, much less be very competitive. As I looked at the history of the eight man game, it seems like a great solution for small schools to allow kids to play the game of football without suffering through four years of losing on a regular basis. The game seems to be a great alternative to eleven man football and its popularity seems to prove that many others think so.About the Author:

David Stargel loves writing about sports and football. He is the owner

of several sports related web sites. He is also known as The Football Nut.

Read about

NFL football at his web

site at: www.the-football-nut.com.

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