Portal:American football

Topics: Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology

American football portal

Shortcuts: P:AF P:USFOOTBALL

American football, known as football in the United States, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players with an oval ball on a rectangular field 120 yards long and 53.3 yards wide with goalposts at either end. The team in possession of the ball (the offense) attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball. In order to continue their drive, the offense must advance the ball at least 10 yards down the field in a series of four downs. If they succeed, they receive a new set of four downs to continue their drive, but if they fail, they lose control of the ball to the opposing team.

The team that has scored the most points by the end of the game wins. The offense can score points by advancing the ball into the end zone (a touchdown) or by place or drop kicking the ball through the opponent's goalpost (a field goal), while the defense can score points by forcing an offensive turnover and advancing the ball into the offense's end zone or by tackling the ballcarrier in the offense's end zone (a safety).

American football evolved from early forms of rugby (particularly rugby union) and association football (soccer), with the first game played on November 6, 1869. Rule changes from 1880 on by Walter Camp included the snap, 11-a-side teams and downs; further rule changes legalized the forward pass and created the neutral zone along the width of the football.

Today, American football is the most popular sport in the United States, where the National Football League (NFL) is the most popular league. The league's championship, the Super Bowl, is among the most-watched club sporting events in the world. College football is also popular in the United States, with the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as the top level competition.

More about the American football...

Show new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

The 2005 Texas Longhorns football team represented The University of Texas at Austin during the college football season of 2005–2006, winning the Big 12 Conference Championship and the national championship. The team was coached by Mack Brown, led on offense by quarterback Vince Young, and played its home games at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium. The team's penultimate game, the 2005 Big 12 Championship Game, was won by the largest margin of victory in Big 12 Championship Game history. Texas finished the season by winning the 2006 Rose Bowl against the University of Southern California Trojans for the national championship. Numerous publications have cited this victory and this team's season as standing among the greatest performances in college football history. The Longhorns finished as the only unbeaten team in NCAA Division I-A football that year, with thirteen wins and zero losses.

More selected articles...

Read more...

edit

Selected picture

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.

More selected pictures...

Read more...

edit

News

Wikinews American football portal

Archive - More sports news - Wikinews football portal

edit

Selected biography

Hobey Baker (1892-1918) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. He is considered the first American star in ice hockey by the Hockey Hall of Fame, and he was also an accomplished American football player. Baker was widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best athletes of his time.

Born into a prominent family from Philadelphia, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910. Baker excelled on the university's hockey and football teams, and became a noted amateur hockey player for the St. Nicholas Club in New York City. He was a member of three national championship teams, for football in 1911 and hockey in 1912 and 1914, and helped the St. Nicholas Club win a national amateur championship in 1915. Baker graduated from Princeton in 1914 and worked for J.P. Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service.

When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Baker was named one of the first nine inductees, the only American among them. In 1973 he became one of the initial inductees in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, and is the only person to be in both the Hockey and College Football Halls of Fame.

More selected biographies…

Read more…

edit

Calendar

Oct 17	Paul Bunyan Trophy	Michigan vs Michigan State
Oct 17	Jeweled Shillelagh	Notre Dame vs USC
Oct 18	NFL: Week 6	New England vs Indianapolis
Oct 24	Third Saturday in October	Alabama vs Tennessee
Oct 25	NFL: Week 7	New York Jets vs New England Dallas vs New York Giants

edit

Things you can do

Add {{Portal|American football}} to the See also section of American football-related articles.
Tag the talk pages of American football-related articles, categories and templates with {{WikiProject American football}}
Join WikiProject American football and list yourself as a Member.
Rate the Unassessed American football articles in the American football WikiProject.
Deletion discussions: listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/American football
Requested articles: Create a requested article on American football
Stubs: Help expand Category:American football stubs

edit

Lists

edit

WikiProjects

WikiProject Sports

edit

Sports portals

edit

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject:

Wikibooks	Wikimedia Commons	Wikinews	Wikiquote	Wikisource	Wikiversity	Wikivoyage	Wiktionary	Wikidata
Books	Media	News	Quotations	Texts	Learning resources	Travel guides	Definitions	Database