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American football
American football,
known in the
United States as simply football is a
competitive team
sport related to, derived from, and somewhat similar to,
other forms of football, but differing from most of them
in significant ways. (The one other form of football that
differs only slightly from American football is
Canadian football.)
Football is extremely popular in the US.
In recent years it has surpassed even
baseball as the nation's most popular spectator sport.
The professional league, the
National Football League (NFL), which consists of 32
teams, is very popular. Its championship game, the
Super Bowl is annually watched by nearly half of US
television households, and is also televised in other
countries.
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 colleges in
lower NCAA divisions and the
NAIA[?] (National
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics[?]) have
varsity football teams, as do most high schools. There are
also amateur, club and youth teams (such as teams in the Pop
Warner leagues).
In addition to those leagues and
teams, now there is a yearly American Football World Cup,
which is held every year, at the same time and at the same
host country for both men's American football and women's
American football.
2003's World Cup will be held in
The Bahamas.
The word football has a number
of different meanings. In the United States football
almost always means what, in the rest of the
English-speaking world, is usually called American
football (or in some cases Gridiron football).
In most of the rest of the world, the word
football means the game that is called
soccer in the US, although it is occasionally
called Association football or International
football. Soccer, the most popular
form of football world-wide, is also popular in the US,
particlarly as a participation sport. It is played at all
levels, youth, amateur, high school, college and
professional. (see:
football (soccer))
In this article, the word football
refers to American football.
Football is played at a number of levels
in the United States. These include the following.
The descriptions on this page are
based primarily on the current rules of the
National Football League (NFL, 1920-present).
Differences with college rules will be noted.
NFL, college, high school, and amateur
rules are similar, as were the rules of professional leagues
that no longer exist. The
Arena Football League (AFL, 1987-present) plays an
indoor adaptation of American football. Flag football and
touch football are non-tackle versions of American football.
Professional leagues that no longer
exist include the
World Football League (WFL,1974-75), the
United States Football League (USFL,1983-1985), the
XFL (XFL,2001), the
All American Football Conference (1946-1949), the
American Football League (AFL,1960-1969-merged with the
NFL in 1970), and the
World League of American Football (WLAF,1991-1993-now
NFL Europe). Since
2000, there has been a surge of women's professional
leagues.
Play in American football consists of a
series of individual plays of short duration, between which
the ball is not in play. Substitutions are allowed between
plays, which allows for a great deal of specialization, as
coaches put in players they think are best suited for any
particular situation. The game is very tactical and
strategic. With 22 players on the field at a time, (eleven
on each team), each with an assigned task for a given play,
the strategies are complex.
The object of the game is to advance the
ball to the opponents' end of the field and score points.
The team with the most points when time has expired wins.
The game is 60 minutes long, divided into
two halves separated by a halftime.
Each half consists of two quarters, each 15
minutes long, between which teams change ends of the field.
Teams also change ends of the field at halftime. If a game
is tied at the end of regulation, overtime
is played. Overtime periods are "sudden death",
meaning that the teams that scores first, by any means,
wins.
A kickoff is a
special play used to start each half, and also used to
restart the game following a field goal, or a conversion
attempt following a touchdown. One team kicks the ball,
usually from its own 30-yard line, although a kickoff may
occur elsewhere due to a penalty on the preceding play.
(Note: the ball is usually kicked from the 35 yard line in
college football). The ball must be kicked from the ground
(not punted) and in bounds at least 10 yards away. Once the
ball has traveled 10 yards upfield it can be fielded by
either team. The ball is usually just kicked deep to the
receiving team, but sometimes a team will attempt to recover
its own kick, in a play that is known as an
onside kick[?].
A free kick is used
to restart the game following a safety, which doesn't happen
often. The team that was trapped in its own end zone, and
therefore conceded two points to the other team, kicks the
ball from its own 20-yard line. A free kick may be punted if
the kicking team so chooses.
Points can be scored in the following
ways.
- A field goal,
worth 3 points, is scored by placing the ball on the
ground and kicking it between the uprights of the goal
posts. (If a field goal is missed, the ball is returned
to the original line of scrimmage [in the NFL, the spot
of the kick], and possession is given to the other
team.)
- A touchdown,
worth 6 points, is achieved when a player has legal
possession of the ball within the opponents' end zone.
- One or two extra points may be
scored following a touchdown. The team which scored the
touchdown is given a conversion attempt
(occasionally called a "try"). The ball
is spotted at the 2 yard line (NFL) or 3 yard line
(college), and the team which scored the touchdown is
allowed to run a single play in which they may score
either one or two additional points. The defending team
can never score during a conversion attempt by the other
team.
- An extra point,
worth 1 point, is scored in the same way as a field
goal is scored during regular play.
- A two-point
conversion is scored in the same way as a
touchdown is scored during regular play.
- A safety, worth
2 points, is scored when an opposition player attempts
to run the ball out of his own end zone, and is either
tackled or goes out of bounds before he has entered the
field of play.
The field is a rectangle 120 yards long
and 53 1/3 yards wide, defined by sidelines
running the length of the field and endlines
running the width. There is a goal line ten
yards in from each end line and parallel to it. The two goal
lines are thus 100 yards apart. The area of the field
between the goal lines is called the field of play.
At each end of the field, the end zone is
the area between the goal line and the end line.
Within the field of play, additional
markings include yard markers, as well as
inbound lines (also called hash
marks), every yard the length of the field. The
inbound lines (hash marks), which are short lines
perpendicular to the yard markers, are 70-3/4 feet from the
sidelines in the NFL. (Note: the hash marks are closer to
the sidelines in college football) Every 5 yards, the yard
markers run the width of the field, and every 10 yards, they
are marked by numbers indicating the distance, in yards,
from the nearest goal line.
At the center of each end line is a
set of goal posts, which have two upright
posts extending above a crossbar. The distance between
upright posts is 18-1/2 feet, and the top of the crossbar is
10 feet above the ground.
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