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American football, known in the United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that rewards players' speed, agility, skill, tactics, and brute strength as they run and throw a ball, and block, tackle, and outrun each other, trying to force the ball further into their opponent's territory and ultimately into the endzone.It is one of the more physically demanding sports, with a great deal of physical contact occurring on every play as players often weighing 300 pounds (~135 kg) or more shove each other with all of their strength, and with a clearly defined front line, moving up and down the field, separating the offensive and defensive squads.
American football does not much resemble soccer, the sport which most people outside the U.S. call "football". Consequently, American Football is best known internationally as "American Football".
However, both of these games have their origins in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid- 19th century, and American football is directly descended from rugby football, usually known simply as "Rugby". According to an apocryphal story rugby football began with a football game at Rugby School in England in 1823 when a player named William Webb Ellis suddenly ran with the ball only to be tackled by an opponent. Contrary to popular belief rugby football had always permitted handling the ball but had banned running with the ball. Rule breaking gradually became increasingly common until it became the accepted norm. Thus was born the game of Rugby Football.
The game progressed from that point and was introduced to North America in Canada, by the British Army garrison in Montreal, which played a series of games with McGill University. In 1874, McGill arranged to play a few games in the United States, at Harvard, which liked the new game so much that it became a feature of the Ivy League. Both Canadian and American football evolved from this point. The U.S. game still has some things in common with the two varieties of rugby, especially rugby leagueRugby league is a team sport, played by teams of 13 players per side (usually plus 4 substitutes). The aim is to carry an oval ball up the field towards the opponents in-goal area. Touching the ball down behind this line scores a try, the main aim of the.
For an in-depth overview of the differences and similarities of Canadian footballCanadian football is a form of football in which two teams of twelve players each compete for territorial control of a field of play 110 yards (100. 58 metres) long and 65 yards (59. 43 metres) wide, with end zones 20 yards (18. 29 metres) deep. At each g and American footballAmerican football known in the United States simply as football is a competitive team sport that rewards players' speed, agility, skill, tactics, and brute strength as they run and throw a ball, and block, tackle, and outrun each other, trying to force th see: Comparison of Canadian and American footballThe rules of Canadian football are very similar to those of American football. Canadian and American football do not much resemble soccer, the sport which most of the world calls "football. However, both of these games have their origins in rugby football
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Since the 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn, football has surpassed even baseballBusch Stadium in Saint Louis, Missouri. Baseball is a team sport in which a small hand-sized ball is thrown and hit with a bat. Scoring involves running and touching markers on the ground called bases, hence the name. The ball itself is also called a base as the most popular spectator sport in the US. The 32-team National Football LeagueFor other uses of the abbreviation "NFL," see NFL (disambiguation). The National Football League NFL is the largest and most popular professional American football league in the world, consisting of thirty-two teams from American cities. The league was fo (NFL) is the most popular professional league. Its championship game, the Super BowlAmerican football competitions The Super Bowl is the championship game of professional American football. It is the championship game of the National Football League, and is the most important American football competition. An AFL-NFL Championship Game wa, is watched by nearly half of US television households, and is also televised in over 150 other countries. Super Bowl Sunday has become an annual ritual in late January or early February. In additions, some players are voted the honor to play in an All-Star game, the Pro Bowl, in Honolulu.
College football is extremely popular, with many major colleges and universities playing NCAA ( National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I football, and consistently selling out huge stadiums. College games are widely televised and widely watched. Many institutions in lower NCAA divisions and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) also field varsity football teams, as do most high schools. High school football is popular in many parts of the US, notably Texas, with games sometimes attracting tens of thousands of fans.
In addition, football is played on amateur, club and youth teams (such as teams in the Pop Warner leagues). There is an American Football World Cup. In addition, there are many "semi-pro" teams, meaning the players are paid to play, but at a small enough salary that they generally must also have a full-time, more traditional job.
