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American football is closely related to two English sports in rugby and soccer, and it originated on the fields of North American universities. The first intercollegiate football contest was held in New Brunswick, New Jersey on November 6, 1869 by players from Princeton and Rutgers. Walter Camp was the man responsible for the transition from the rugby-soccer hybrid called the “Boston Game” to the sport of football we know today. You may find that fans of american football also take up a game called fantasy football, where competitors choose imaginary teams from players in the league and score points according to the actual performance of their players. If you haven’t heard of this before, doing some research will help you get to grips at least with the basics.
Known as the “Father of American Football”, Camp served on the rules board of the Intercollegiate Football Association and made key innovations to gridiron football, including the elimination of the opening “scrummage” that was seen in rugby and replacing it with the requirement that a team give up the ball after failing to move down the field a specific yardage in a certain number of downs.
The objective in American football is to score more points than the other team during the allotted time. The team with the ball (the offense) has 4 downs to advance past 10 yards and can score either a touchdown (6 points) or a field goal (3 points) once they get close enough to the end zone. After scoring a touchdown, teams will attempt another score from the 2-yard line. Teams can attempt a 1-point field goal kick or they can advance the ball into their opponents’ end zone for a 2-point conversion. When on defense, teams can down opposing offenses in their own end zones to score a 2-point safety.
Football games are typically 60 minutes long, divided into 4 quarters of 15 minutes. Teams have 3 timeouts to use per half to temporarily stop play. A player carrying the ball is either downed by contact where the opponent tackles the runner by pushing him, grasping and pulling him to the ground, or touching him in any way prior to the runner’s knees or elbows touching the ground. A down ends when the ball carrier is downed or goes out of bounds, a forward pass is incomplete, the ball hits the goalpost or a touchback occurs.
In most cases when a foul occurs, the offending team will be assessed a penalty of 5, 10 or 15 yards, depending on the foul. Most personal fouls, which involve danger to another player, are 15-yard penalties, and in rare cases they result in offending players being ejected from the game.
Football Leagues
The National Football League began its operations in 1920, but it was originally called the American Professional Football Conference and the American Professional Football Association at the time. The American Football League was founded in 1959 to go into competition against the National Football League, but ceased operations in 1970 to merge with the NFL. This merger was made effective after Super Bowl IV where the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 23-7. The NFL has grown considerably since it’s formation. Games are now televised and enjoyed around the world. Merch is now sold so that fans can dress up to support their teams and football betting is just as popular as the sport itself (where states allow it). The global growth of American football doesn’t seem to be slowing down either!
The Canadian Football League was founded in 1958 and is currently the 2nd most popular sport in Canada, only behind the National Hockey League. The Canadian football game features a few different rules compared to the American game, such as expanding the length of the football field and having 12 players on each side of the field instead of 11. Canadian football allows teams on offense only 3 maximum downs per possession instead of 4. Teams can score a one-point rouge when the ball becomes dead in the possession of its opponent in its own goal, when the ball touches or crosses the dead-line, or sideline in goal, and touches the ground.
From 1992 to 1995, the CFL pursued expansion efforts in the United States to feature its events in 2 countries. Sacremento, Las Vegas, Baltimore, San Antonio, Memphis, Sherveport and Birmingham were the American markets the CFL expanded into. Since 1996, CFL games have returned to being exclusively played in Canada.
There are also American football leagues exclusive for women to participate. The professional women’s football leagues that are currently active are the Independent Women’s Football League (founded in 2000) and the Women’s Football Alliance (founded in 2009).
Another American football variant that is more radical in design is indoor American football. Played on a 50-yard field instead of a normal 100-yard field, indoor football features a few rules that differentiate from the original game, such as keeping the football in play after it hits the fences that surround the goal posts. In this variant, players can go only go out of bounds after they make contact with the walls that surround the field. Indoor football games are typically played with 8 players on offense and defense, as opposed to 11 players in the original game. The most popular indoor football league would be the Arena Football League, which was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster.
