The 32-team National Football League (NFL) is the only major professional American football league.
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College football is also popular throughout North America. Four college football stadiums, The University of Michigan's Michigan Stadium, Penn State's Beaver Stadium, The University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium and Ohio State's Ohio Stadium, seat more than 100,000 fans and almost always sell out. Even high school football games can attract more than 10,000 people in some areas. The weekly autumn ritual of college and high-school football—which includes marching bands, cheerleaders, homecoming, and parties (including the ubiquitous tailgate party)—is an important part of the culture in much of smalltown America. Football is generally the major source of revenue to the athletic programs of schools, public and private, in the United States. Some private Christian High Schools even play for 'national championships' with groups like the Federated Christian Athletic Association (FCAA).
It is a long-standing tradition in the United States (though not universally observed) that high school football games are played on Friday night, college games on Saturday, and professional games on Sunday, with one NFL game played on Monday night. In recent years, however, nationally televised Thursday night college games have become a weekly fixture on ESPN.
Certain fall and winter holidays—most notably Thanksgiving and New Year's Day—have traditional football games associated with them.
Football is played recreationally by amateur and youth teams (e.g., the Pop Warner little-league programs). There are also many "semi-pro" teams in leagues where the players are paid to play but at a small enough salary that they generally must also hold a full-time job.
Organized football is played almost exclusively by men and boys, although
a few amateur and semi-professional women's leagues have begun play in
recent years.
Outside the United States
The NFL operated a developmental league, NFL Europa, with teams in
five German cities and one in the Netherlands, but this league folded following
the 2007 season. The professional Canadian Football League and collegiate
Canadian Interuniversity Sport play under Canadian rules. The sport is
popular as an amateur activity in Mexico and American Samoa and to a lesser
extent in Japan, Europe, Korea, The Bahamas, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,
Australia (Gridiron Australia), Israel and the United Kingdom (BAFL).[citation
needed] The International Federation of American Football is the governing
body for American football with 45 member associations from North and South
America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. The IFAF also oversees the American
Football World Cup, which is held every four years. Japan won the first
two World Cups, held in 1999 and 2003. Team USA, which had not participated
in the previous World Cups, won the title in 2007. Despite this, the game
has been slow to catch on in most countries.
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History
History of American football
Frank Dombrowski (left) of the United States and Captain W. Drinkwater of Canada, rival captains of the teams playing in the Canada-United States football game at White City Stadium, London, England, 14 February 1944Both American football and soccer have their origins in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. American football is directly descended from rugby football. The majority of the plays in a typical American football game involve handling the ball rather than kicking it.
Many "first" American football games have been claimed. However, many
such games were played under rules that were so different from today's
game as to call into question the veracity of the claims.[6] The origins
of American football probably date to the early 1800s when teams from various
colleges and secondary schools (necessarily from the Eastern part of the
United States because established institutions of learning existed only
in that region at the time) met to attempt to move an inflated ball past
a line to gain points. This movement was usually achieved by kicking or
batting at the ball, as in soccer. The number of men on each side (as men
were only then allowed to compete) was quite different than the eleven
which characterizes the modern game. As to the 'first' game of American
football, it has been claimed that Rutgers University and Princeton University
played the first game of college football on Nov. 6, 1869 in New Brunswick,
New Jersey, won by Rutgers 6-4. However, the viewpoint that this particular
game marks the beginning of American football is contested. The English
Football (i.e., Soccer) Association rules were followed in the Princeton/Rutgers
contest; participants were only allowed to kick the ball; and each side
had twenty five men. Some see the Princeton/Rutgers meeting of 1869 as
the first intercollegiate game of "soccer" in America, but not American
football. Dartmouth College students played a football-like game now known
as "Old Division Football," to which they published rules in 1871. If one
must require that there be a starting point, or "first" game, of American
football between two American teams, that distinction would have to go
to the contest played between Tufts University and Harvard University on
June 4, 1875 at Jarvis Field in Cambridge, Mass., won by Tufts 1-0 . Jarvis
Field was at the time located off Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, between
Everett and Jarvis Sts. which bordered the northern point of the Harvard
campus. A report of the outcome of this game appeared in the Boston Daily
Globe of June 5, 1875. In the Tufts/Harvard game participants were allowed
to pick up the ball and run with it, each side fielded eleven men, the
ball carrier was stopped by knocking him down or "tackling" him, and the
inflated ball was egg-shaped - the combination of which far more closely
resembles the modern American football game than the games of other "firsts".
Thus, the Harvard/Tufts game may be regarded as the beginning of football
between two American colleges. It should also be noted that a year prior
to the Tufts/Harvard game, Harvard faced McGill University of Montreal,
Canada on May 14, 1874 in a game under rules similar to the Tufts/Harvard
game. This marks the Harvard/McGill game as the first game of football
in "North" America. To this day, Harvard, McGill and Tufts continue to
field football teams though they no longer play each other.
One of the first egg shaped footballs.Encouraged by Yale University's Walter Camp, the schools began to adopt more standardized rules that would differentiate American football from rugby in the 1880s. The scrimmage was introduced in 1880 and the system of downs in 1882.
By the turn of the 20th century, football had become notoriously dangerous; 18 college players died in 1905 alone. Colleges responded with a series of rule changes to open up the game, most importantly the forward pass, along with outlawing dangerous formations such as the "flying wedge", and introducing and requiring better equipment such as helmets.
The game had achieved its modern form by 1912, when the field was changed to its current size, the value of a touchdown increased to 6 points, and a fourth down added to each possession. Originally dominated by the Ivy League, football soon captured the interest of colleges nationwide. By 1916, when the Rose Bowl game matching eastern and western teams became an annual event, football had developed a national following second only to baseball among team sports.
Professional football developed in the mill towns of Pennsylvania and the American Midwest in the early years of the 20th century. The NFL was founded in 1920 in Canton, Ohio as the American Professional Football Association; it adopted its current name in 1922. Professional football remained a largely regional sport of secondary importance until after World War II, when television broadcasts boosted NFL football's national appeal. The pro game surpassed both college football and baseball in popularity in the 1960s. The first Super Bowl—between the champions of the NFL and the rival American Football League—was played in 1967, and the leagues merged in 1970.
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