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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Curly Lambeau made the first successful fair catch kick in NFL history, for the Green Bay Packers in 1921.

The fair catch kick is a rule at the professional and high school levels of American football that allows a team that has just made a fair catch to attempt a free kick from the spot of the catch. The kick must be either a place kick or a drop kick, and if it passes over the crossbar and between the goalposts of the opposing team's goal, a field goal, worth three points, is awarded to the kicking team.

The fair catch kick is considered to be an obscure rule and it is rarely attempted. Because most fair catches are made well out of field goal range, and a team making a fair catch has possession of the ball and a first down, it is rarely to a team's advantage to attempt a fair catch kick rather than run a play from scrimmage. A team may attempt a fair catch kick if it makes a fair catch when the clock expires at the end of either half, as a half must be extended in order to allow a fair catch kick attempt. At the professional level, the last successful fair catch kick was made by Ray Wersching of the San Diego Chargers in 1976. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)
Image 2Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 3Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 4Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 5Lehigh 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 6A 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 7Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 8A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 9Sign at the old entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 101902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (from History of American football)
Image 11An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 12A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 13An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 14A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 15Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 16Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 17The Hall is made up of several sections with display of the inductees at its heart (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 18A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 19Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 20One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 21Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 22Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 23A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 241906 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 25Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 26Don Hutson in 1940. (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 28A 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 291897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 30Walter 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 31High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 32Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 33Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 93rd Grey Cup game at BC Place. (from Canadian football)

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Commander in Chief's Trophy

Credit: Naval Academy Athletic Association

The Commander in Chief's Trophy is a college football rivalry traveling trophy presented annually since 1972 to the side from the United States Military Academy Black Knights, United States Naval Academy Midshipmen, and Air Force Academy Falcons to win the round-robin series played amongst the three.

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Thorpe in 1913

James Francis Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk): Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon). He also played football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and professional basketball.

He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the contemporary amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals with replicas, after ruling that the decision to strip him of his medals fell outside of the required 30 days. Official IOC records still listed Thorpe as co-champion in decathlon and pentathlon until 2022, when it was decided to restore him as the sole champion in both events, as his competitors Hugo Wieslander and Ferdinand Bie had always wished. (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

Selected quote

“

My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life: The honor of my race, family, and self is at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will. My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part.

”

— Jack Trice

Iowa State College Cyclones offensive tackle, in a letter to his family one day prior to his sustaining fatal injuries in a game betwixt his team and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis, Minnesota

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