TL;DR: The football field as we know it took decades to develop: end zones were not added until 1912, and the goal posts have moved multiple times since then. In 1971, Michael Noonan of Larksville, Pennsylvania patented a color-coded yard line system that the NFL still has not adopted. The original patent drawing is available framed or unframed.
In 1971, a man from Larksville, Pennsylvania filed a patent with the U.S. Patent Office for a football field. Not a new field -- the dimensions were not changing. What Michael Noonan proposed was a system of colored yard lines that would visually distinguish different zones of the playing surface from one another. The red zone, for instance, would be marked in red. The idea was elegant, functional, and never implemented by the NFL.
That story -- the inventor who solved a real problem and was ignored by the institution that could have used the solution -- is a quiet thread running through the history of American football's playing surface. The field itself evolved through a series of contested rule changes, borrowed concepts from rugby, and slow responses to the violence the game was producing. Understanding why it looks the way it does requires going back to a game that barely resembles what is played today.
The First Football Games and Their Borrowed Dimensions
The first game generally accepted as American football was played on November 6, 1869, between Rutgers and Princeton in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The rules that day resembled soccer more than modern football: 25 players per side, no running with the ball, and scoring by kicking the ball through the opponent's goal. Rutgers won, six goals to four.
The game that more directly produced modern football came six years later, in 1875, when Harvard and Yale played under a set of rules closer to rugby. This "concessionary game" -- so called because each school gave up something in the rules negotiation -- allowed ball carrying and tackling. The Harvard-Yale game of 1875 is why some historians consider it the true first football game, since the resulting rules evolved into the framework that Walter Camp would later codify into recognizable American football.
These early games were played on whatever open ground was available. There were no standardized field dimensions, no marked yard lines, and no end zones. The playing surface was borrowed from whatever sport had last used it or simply staked out in a park or field. The concept of a purpose-designed football field did not yet exist.
How the Field Layout Developed in the Early Years
Walter Camp, often called the father of American football, was central to the formalization of the game during the 1880s. Camp reduced the team size from 15 to 11 players, established the line of scrimmage, created the down-and-distance system, and standardized the field at 110 yards long and 53 and a third yards wide. The field dimensions Camp established were influential, though they would be adjusted in subsequent decades.
The original field design did not include end zones. To score, a ball carrier simply needed to cross the opponent's goal line -- a single stripe at each end of the field. There were no defined boundaries beyond the line itself, and there was no designated territory behind the goal. This created an immediate problem when the forward pass was legalized in 1906, because a receiver could run indefinitely behind the scoring line to catch a thrown ball. The rules had no framework for what happened in the space beyond the goal.
The yard line grid -- the horizontal lines marking every five yards down the field's length -- was a relatively early addition, and it gave the field its characteristic checkerboard appearance. The field looked like graph paper, which is how it acquired the informal name "gridiron."
The Introduction of End Zones
The problem of the forward pass and unbounded territory behind the goal line became pressing enough that in 1910, the rules committee considered adding defined end zones to the field. Rugby had long used a zone behind the goal line -- typically 25 yards deep -- so the concept had precedent in the game's nearest ancestor.
In 1912, the committee acted. End zones 12 yards deep were added to each end of the field, bringing the overall field length to 120 yards including the end zones -- the same total length as today's field, though the end zones were later standardized at 10 yards rather than 12. A receiver catching a forward pass in the end zone would now score a touchdown. A receiver stepping out of the end zone would produce an incomplete pass. The rules finally had a framework for the territory behind the goal.
The introduction of the end zone also required a change to the total field length. The playing field itself -- the area between the two end zones -- was shortened to 100 yards, where it has remained ever since. The 100-yard field is so fundamental to football culture that the phrase "hundred yards" has become synonymous with the game itself.
The Goal Posts: Rugby's Other Contribution
Football did not invent its goal posts. It borrowed them from rugby, along with the concept of scoring by kicking the ball through a set of uprights. The first football goal posts were made of wood and installed directly on the goal line -- the front edge of what would later become the end zone.
Goal posts on the goal line created a specific hazard: they stood in the middle of the playing field, in territory that receivers and defenders regularly ran through at full speed. Collisions with the posts were a documented source of injury, and the posts also affected pass routes, since a receiver running toward the end zone had to account for the physical obstacle of the upright standing in his path.
In 1927, college football moved the goal posts from the goal line to the back of the end zone. The NFL followed in 1933, citing both the injury concern and the observation that smart receivers had begun using the post as a screen to create separation from defenders -- a technique difficult to defend but also arguably dangerous.
The goal post position has not been stable even since then. The NFL moved the posts back to the goal line briefly in 1974, then returned them to the back of the end zone in 1975, where they remain today. College football has kept the posts at the back of the end zone since 1927, producing one of the many subtle rule differences between the two versions of the game.
Michael Noonan's 1971 Patent and the Color-Coded Field
The football field reached something close to its modern form in the first half of the 20th century. Beyond the adjustment of goal post positions and the standardization of end zone depth, the basic layout -- 100 yards of playing field, 10-yard end zones, hash marks, and a yard line grid -- has been essentially stable for decades.
Which makes the 1971 Noonan patent an interesting coda to the field's evolution. Michael Noonan of Larksville, Pennsylvania was granted a patent for a yard line coloring system that would use colors other than white to distinguish different zones of the playing surface. The principle was straightforward: if the red zone is a meaningful strategic designation in football -- the area inside the opponent's 20-yard line where scoring probability is highest -- why not mark it in red? Why not give players, coaches, and fans an immediate visual reference for where the critical territory is?
The patent never reached the playing field in the NFL. The league's grounds crews have continued to mark all lines in white, with painted end zone graphics and team logos as the only color on the surface. Whether the Noonan system would have improved the viewing experience or created confusion is a question that was never tested. The drawing he filed with the patent office remains the record of what he proposed.
The field as it stands today is the product of decisions made by committees, coaches, and rule makers over the better part of a century -- borrowed from rugby, adjusted for safety, modified for television, and, in at least one case, improved by an inventor whose solution the game has yet to use.
Shop Football Field Patent Art Prints
The original U.S. Patent Office drawing that proposed a color-coded visual system for the football field. Starting at $49.99 unframed.
Football Field (1971), Michael Noonan
Noonan's 1971 patent is the drawing that proposed what the NFL still has not done: use color to mark the strategically significant zones of the football field. The patent captures a moment when an inventor looked at a century-old playing surface and identified a real problem worth solving. The technical drawing shows the field layout with the proposed color system in precise detail. A distinctive piece for any football fan, and one of the more genuinely interesting patent stories in the sport.
Best for: Football fans, coaches, anyone who follows the game closely, gift buyers looking for something unexpected
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the first football game played?
The first American football game is generally dated to November 6, 1869, when Rutgers defeated Princeton 6-4 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, under rules closer to soccer than modern football. The 1875 Harvard-Yale game, played under rugby-influenced rules that allowed ball carrying and tackling, is considered by many historians to be the more direct ancestor of the modern game.
When were end zones added to the football field?
End zones were added to the football field in 1912, following a 1910 rules committee recommendation. The initial end zones were 12 yards deep, later standardized to 10 yards. The addition was prompted by the 1906 legalization of the forward pass, which created the need for defined boundaries behind the goal line. The field was simultaneously shortened from 110 yards to 100 yards of playing surface, bringing the total field length including end zones to 120 yards.
Why were goal posts moved to the back of the end zone?
The NFL moved goal posts from the goal line to the back of the end zone in 1933, following college football's 1927 rule change. The move addressed two problems: goal posts on the goal line were a collision hazard for players running full speed through the end zone, and receivers had begun using the posts as physical screens to create separation from defenders. The NFL briefly moved posts back to the goal line in 1974 before returning them to the back of the end zone in 1975.
What did Michael Noonan's 1971 football field patent propose?
Michael Noonan of Larksville, Pennsylvania patented a yard line coloring system that would use colors other than white to visually distinguish different zones of the football field. The system was designed to give players, coaches, and spectators immediate visual reference for strategically significant areas like the red zone. The NFL has not adopted the color-coded system, and field lines remain marked in white today.
What football patent art prints are available?
The Michael Noonan 1971 football field patent print is available as a framed or unframed museum-quality reproduction of the original U.S. Patent Office drawing. Additional football-related patent prints -- including the football helmet and football pants -- are also available. Each is a reproduction of an actual engineering drawing from the U.S. Patent Office, rendered in a watercolor style on museum-quality paper.
Written by Rider Tuff, founder of Timeless Patents. Timeless Patents makes museum-quality patent art prints from original U.S. Patent Office documents, celebrating the inventors behind your favorite sports, hobbies, and passions. Every print is available framed or unframed, starting at $49.99. Shop the full football collection →
