Portal:American football

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The American Football Portal

American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or throwing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. A game is won by the team with the higher number of points, which are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football match was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football. The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game, although its rules were developed independently from those of Camp. Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football. The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States in terms of broadcast viewership audience. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high-school and youth football. , nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes play the sport in the U.S., with another 81,000 college athletes in the NCAA and the NAIA. The National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events globally. In 2022, the league had an annual revenue of around $18.6 billion, making it the most valuable sports league in the world. Other professional and amateur leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball; the sport maintains a growing following in the rest of North America, Europe, Brazil, and Japan. (Full article...)

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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

The National Football League (NFL) playoffs is the single-elimination tournament to determine the annual league champion. The four-round tournament is held after the league's regular season. Since the 2020 season, seven teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season winning percentage, with a tie-breaking procedure if required. The top team in each conference receives a first-round bye, automatically advancing to the next round. The tournament culminates in the Super Bowl, the league's championship game, competed between teams from each conference.

NFL postseason history can be traced to the first NFL Championship Game in 1933, though in the early years, qualification for the game was based solely on regular-season records. From 1933 to 1966, the NFL postseason generally only consisted of the NFL Championship Game, which pitted the league's two division winners against each other (pending any one-game playoff matches that needed to be held to break ties in the division standings). In 1967, the playoffs were expanded to four teams (division winners). When the league completed its merger with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970, the playoffs were expanded to eight teams, which increased to ten in 1978, twelve in 1990, and fourteen in 2020. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various American football-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 21902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (from History of American football)
Image 3A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 4Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 93rd Grey Cup game at BC Place. (from Canadian football)
Image 5Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 6High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 7A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 8Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)
Image 9Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American football)
Image 10Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 11Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 12Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 13Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 141897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 15Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 16Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", pictured here in 1878 as the captain of the Yale University football team (from History of American football)
Image 17Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (gold jerseys with black accents) vs. Triangle Torch (black jerseys with red and yellow accents) play an Indoor Football League at Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 25, 2016 (from Arena football)
Image 18A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 19Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 20Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 21An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 221906 St. Louis Post-Dispatch photograph of Brad Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass and was the sport's first triple threat (from History of American football)
Image 23A modern down indicator box is mounted on a pole and is used to mark the current line of scrimmage. The number on the marker is changed using a dial. (from Canadian football)
Image 24Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 25Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 26One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 27The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 28The Hall is made up of several sections with display of the inductees at its heart (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 29Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 30A game between the 4th Canadian Armoured Division Atoms and First Canadian Army Red and Blue Bombers, in Utrecht, Netherlands, October 1945 (from Canadian football)
Image 31Sign at the old entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 32An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 33A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)

Selected image

Gerald Ford

Credit: Gerald R. Ford Library

Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, played center and linebacker for the Michigan Wolverines, helping his team to two national titles.

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Speedie on a 1950 Bowman football card

Mac Curtis Speedie (January 12, 1920 – March 5, 1993) was an American professional football end who played for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and the National Football League (NFL) for seven years before joining the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Canada. He later served for two years as head coach of the American Football League's Denver Broncos. A tall and quick runner whose awkward gait helped him deceive defenders and get open, Speedie led his league in receptions four times during his career and was selected as a first-team All-Pro six times. His career average of 800 yards per season was not surpassed until two decades after his retirement, and his per-game average of 50 yards went unequalled for 20 years after he left the game.

Speedie grew up in Utah, where he overcame Perthes Disease to become a standout as a hurdler on his high school track team and a halfback on the football team. He attended the University of Utah, where he continued to excel at track and football before entering the military in 1942 during World War II. He spent four years in the service before joining the Browns in 1946, where he played as an end opposite quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley and fellow receiver Dante Lavelli. The Browns, a new team in the AAFC, won the league championship every year between 1946 and 1949. The Browns merged into the NFL in 1950 after the AAFC disbanded, and Speedie continued to succeed as the team won another league championship. After two more years with the Browns, however, Speedie left the team for the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) amid a conflict with Paul Brown, Cleveland's head coach. He played two full seasons in the WIFU and one game in a third season before leaving professional football. (Full article...)

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Calendar

2023 season: NFL • NCAA FBS (Bowl games)
Jan 8	College Football National Championship: #1 Michigan vs #2 Washington
Jan 13-15	NFL: Wild Cards
Jan 20-21	NFL: Divisional games
Jan 28	NFL: Conference games
Feb 4	NFL: Pro Bowl Games
Feb 11	NFL: Super Bowl LVIII