Football History 101: International Rules Football

Class, we're going to do something different today. We've been focusing entirely on the history of American football, but we all know that's not the only type of football played on our little planet.

The most popular form of football around the world, of course, is Association football, or soccer, which attracts huge crowds in Europe, South America and many parts of Asia. As I've mentioned before, American football is a direct descendent of Rugby football, which became standardized in England a few years after soccer and is still played in many corners of the world.

These are not, however, the only types of football played in the world. There's also Australian Rules Football, which was formulated in the mid-19th century and influenced by two games: Cambridge Rules football, which was drawn up at Cambridge University in England in 1848, and an aboriginal game called Marn Grook, which English settlers first saw in 1841. In that game, one player drop-kicked a stuffed possum-skin ball high into the air, and other players jumped up as high as they could to catch it. Whoever caught it got a free kick.

The Englishmen who saw this game were so fascinated by Marn Grook that it became a staple of both the Cambridge Rules and Aussie Rules games. If you watch any Australian football match, you will notice a lot of high kicks and a lot of players jumping up to catch the ball and claim a mark, which gives them a free kick.

Meanwhile, our friends in Ireland play something called Gaelic Football, a game unique to the country, yet somewhat similar to the Australian game. Gaelic Football was standardized in 1887 by the Gaelic Athletic Association, a group that sought to promote Irish sports and reject the "foreign imports" from England. Gaelic Football involves both carrying and kicking the ball, though you can only run about five steps before you have to kick the ball to yourself (which is called "soloing") or to a teammate. It has a soccer-like goal, but also has goalposts that stretch high above the crossbar. Kicking the ball through the uprights is a point, and kicking it in goal is three points.

Why do I mention all of this today? It's because the Australians and the Irish are about to reach a compromise this weekend...

Members of the Australian (top) and Irish
International Rules football teams from 2005
(Photos from Getty Images)
For the next two weekends in Ireland, an Australian national team and an Irish national team will meet on the field to play a game of International Rules Football. Some call it "Compromise Rules," and that's exactly what it is -- a compromise between the Australian football game and the Gaelic football game. The Australian elements of marking the ball and tackling between shoulders and thighs are present here, while the Irish have the advantage of playing on a square field with a round ball. (The Aussies use an oblong ball and an oval field.)

International Rules Football is unique in that it's the only popular code of football in the world that has no dedicated leagues and is only played in tournaments and test matches. It was first played as a test match between an Australian team and a touring Irish team in 1967, though the modern International Rules matches between Australia and Ireland have been played every year since 1998. Each time, the home team has won.

The first 2006 International Rules test match between the Australia and Ireland will be played today at Pearse Stadium in Galway, while the second test match will be played in historic Croke Park in Dublin on Sunday, November 5.

I want all of you out there to seek these games out. This is a very unique game that shows how differently football has evolved in other parts of the world. It may also give us a glimpse of how football may continue to evolve in the future. A century ago, I'm sure few expected American football to look like it does now. Who knows how all forms of football will look in another 100 years time?

If you want to watch these games in America, they will be shown on Setanta Sports, which is available through DirecTV and can probably be found at an English or Irish pub somewhere in your neighborhood. You can also watch these matches online through Setanta Broadband. The first match will be aired Sunday at 7:00 PM EST, and the second match will be shown on Monday, November 6 at 10:00 PM EST, by which time that Oakland Raiders-Seattle Seahawks game will have bored you to tears -- unless you really want to see that big quarterback duel between Seneca Wallace and Andrew Walter.

We'll get back to American football history next week. Enjoy the games, everyone.