Question: why doesn t the nfl football have stripes

title: Football (ball)
text: Until 1870 , rugby was played with a near spherical ball with an inner - tube made of a pig 's bladder . In 1870 Richard Lindon and Bernardo Solano started making balls for Rugby school out of hand stitched , four - panel , leather casings and pigs ' bladders . The rugby ball 's distinctive shape is supposedly due to the pig 's bladder , although early balls were more plum - shape than oval . The balls varied in size in the beginning depending upon how large the pig 's bladder was . Because of the pliability of rubber the shape gradually changed from a sphere to an egg . In 1892 the RFU endorsed ovalness as the compulsory shape . The gradual flattening of the ball continued over the years . The introduction of synthetic footballs over the traditional leather balls , in both rugby codes , was originally governed by weather conditions . If the playing surface was wet , the synthetic ball was used , because it would n't absorb water and become heavy . Eventually , the leather balls were phased out completely .