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Early Gridiron Football was a brutal sport. John L. Sullivan, the last heavyweight bareknuckle London Prize Rules boxing champion, once said of it "Football. There's murder in that game. Prizefighting doesn't compare in roughness or danger with football. In the ring, at least you know what you're doing. You know what your opponent is trying to do. He's right there in front of you. There only one of him. But in football--there 11 guys trying to do you in!"
In 1905, after a season that saw 18 college players killed and more than 150 seriously injured, Pressident Theodore Roosevelt demanded that game's rules be changed or he would ban it.