Portal:American football

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The American Football Portal

American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and 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. Points 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. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football game 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. As of 2022, 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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Health issues in American football comprise a large number of health risks associated with participating in the sport. Injuries are relatively common in American football, due to its nature as a full-contact game. Injuries occur during both practice and games. Several factors can affect the frequency of injuries: epidemiological studies have shown older players can be at a greater risk, while equipment and experienced coaches can reduce the risk of injury. Common injuries include strains, sprains, fractures, dislocations, and concussions. Concussions have become a concern, as they increase the risk of mental illnesses like dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In individual leagues like the National Football League (NFL) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a public injury report is published containing all injured players on a team, their injury and the game-day status of each player.

Catastrophic injuries—defined as serious injury to the spine, spinal cord, or brain—and fatalities are uncommon in football; both have become less common since the 1970s, although a small number of them still occur each year. Both concussions and catastrophic injuries can be caused by helmet-to-helmet collisions as well as impact against the ground or other players' knees; in other cases, they can be caused by players who have sustained a head injury returning to play, which can place the player at risk of sustaining a severe injury. Despite the decrease in catastrophic injuries, a greater number of NFL players have reported major injuries and shortened careers since the 1970s, in part due to the increasing size and speed of players and the use of artificial turf. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 2Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 3The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 4Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 5Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 93rd Grey Cup game at BC Place. (from Canadian football)
Image 6A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 7A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 8An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 9Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 10A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 111897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 12Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 13One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 14The Hall is made up of several sections with display of the inductees at its heart (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 15Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 16Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American football)
Image 17Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 18High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 19Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 201902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (from History of American football)
Image 21Sign at the old entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 22Walter 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 23Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 24Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 25An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 26A 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 27A 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 28Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 291906 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 30A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 31Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 32Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (gold jerseys with black accents) vs. Triangle Torch (black jerseys with red and yellow accents) play an American Indoor Football game at Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 25, 2016 (from Arena football)
Image 33Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)

Selected image

Cleveland Browns Stadium

Credit: Chris Brown

Cleveland Browns Stadium is a football stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. Home of the Cleveland Browns National Football League franchise, it sits on 31 acres (13 ha) of land on the shores of Lake Erie and has a capacity of at least 73,200.

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Zock Alexander Allen (born June 12, 1968) is a former gridiron football linebacker who played for the BC Lions and the Las Vegas Posse of the Canadian Football League. From 1991 to 1994, he played in 27 regular season games, recording 119 tackles, four sacks, and two fumble recoveries. He played college football for the Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas. (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