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 history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Both games have their origin in multiple varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, in which a football is kicked at a goal or kicked over a line, which in turn were based on the varieties of English public school football games descending from medieval ball games.

American football resulted from several major divergences from association football and rugby football. Most notably the rule changes were instituted by Walter Camp, a Yale University athlete and coach who is considered to be the "Father of American Football". Among these important changes were the introduction of the hike spot, of down-and-distance rules, and of the legalization of forward pass and blocking. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gameplay developments by college coaches such as Eddie Cochems, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Parke H. Davis, Knute Rockne, and Glenn "Pop" Warner helped take advantage of the newly introduced forward pass. The popularity of college football grew as it became the dominant version of the sport in the United States for the first half of the 20th century. Bowl games, a college football tradition, attracted a national audience for college teams. Boosted by fierce rivalries and colorful traditions, college football still holds widespread appeal in the United States (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1The Hall is made up of several sections with display of the inductees at its heart (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 2One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 3Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 4Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 5Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American football)
Image 6Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 7A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 81902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (from History of American football)
Image 9A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 10An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 11Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 12An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 13High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 14Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 15Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 93rd Grey Cup game at BC Place. (from Canadian football)
Image 16Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)
Image 17Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 18A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 19Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 20A 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 21Lehigh 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 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 23A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 24Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 25The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 26A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 27Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 28Sign at the old entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 29A 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 301906 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 31Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 32Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 331897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 34An AFL goalpost (from Arena football)

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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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Pollard, circa 1946

Alfred Lee Pollard (September 7, 1928 – March 3, 2002) was a professional football fullback and halfback. After a brief stint at Loyola University, he decided to transfer to the United States Military Academy (Army) in the spring of 1949 where he played under the renowned Vince Lombardi as his backfield coach. In his 1950 season, he was Army's statistical leader in scoring and rushing. He resigned from the school after being involved in an cribbing scandal which decimated the ranks of Army's sports teams. He was drafted by the New York Yanks in the 21st round of the 1951 NFL Draft, and Pollard played a total of 30 games in the NFL with the Yanks and the Philadelphia Eagles, scoring one career touchdown. In 1954, he left the Eagles for opportunity and played in the Western Interprovincial Football Union, later known as the Canadian Football League (CFL), for the BC Lions, achieving "All Canadian" status.

After retiring from football in 1957, he pursued a number of business ventures in Canada including a beverage distributorship and a well regarded Steakhouse restaurant. He move back to Pennsylvania and became a color commentator on Eagles broadcasts, first with CBS television from 1961 to 1964, and then on WIP radio, where he worked with play-by-play man Charlie Swift from 1969 to 1976. Pollard also anchored a postgame Eagles program for WCAU-TV. During his broadcasting years, he worked as a regional sales manager with a large commercial printing company and developed an ice skating and tennis court facility in Berwyn, Pa. He died of lymphoma on March 3, 2002. (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