Portal:American football

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 the ball 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 one of 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.

Unlike most other ball sports, like basketball, baseball, and soccer, players of American football are not expected to play both offense and defense- usually, each player is assigned to either offense or defense, not both. As such, each individual player usually only plays for, at most, about half of the game. In modern professional American football, it is very rare, although not unheard of, for players to play both offense and defense. Players who play on both sides of the ball are more common in high school and college football. (Full article...)

Recognized content -

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

From 1895 to 1899, William Wurtenburg served as the head coach of the Dartmouth football program, which represented Dartmouth College in collegiate football competitions. Dartmouth had adopted football as a school sport in 1881 when the team went 1–0–1. Prior to Wurtenburg's hiring, the team had won two consecutive Triangular Football League championships under coach Wallace Moyle. Wurtenburg had been a highly successful player at Yale, where he had played at quarterback on teams that went 46–1–1 in a four-year span. He had graduated from the school in 1893 and coached the Navy Midshipmen football program for a year before his hiring by Dartmouth.

During Wurtenburg's five year coaching tenure, Dartmouth went 8–2 in conference contests and won four consecutive Triangular Football League championships. The 1895 season was made up of thirteen games, a record-setting amount for a Dartmouth team. It included the closest loss to rival Harvard up to that point. The 1896 was the most successful season of Wurtenburg's, in terms of winning percentage; the squad went 5–2–1, the tenth-best record among major teams, for a .688 win percentage. The fewest games played in a season under Wurtenburg were seven in 1897. That team managed a 4–3 record, which included a three-game scoreless streak. The 1898 squad finished the season with a losing record, 5–6, but managed to outscore its opponents 205–137. Wurtenburg's final season as Dartmouth's head coach was his worst. The team had a 2–7 overall record and went 0–2 in conference play. The season was also marked by several of the largest blowouts of Dartmouth in years. (Full article...)

List of recognized articles

General images

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

Image 11897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 2Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 31906 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 4A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 5Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 6Hanged U-shaped Continental Indoor Football League goalpost (from Arena football)
Image 7Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)
Image 8Walter 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 9Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 93rd Grey Cup game at BC Place (November 2005) (from Canadian football)
Image 10Lehigh 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 11Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 12An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 13Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 14Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 15Indoor Football League (from Arena football)
Image 16A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 17Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 181902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (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 20High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 21Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 22A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 23Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American football)
Image 24An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 25A 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 26One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (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 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 30The Hall is made up of several sections with display of the inductees at its heart (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 31A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 32Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 33The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 34Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 35A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)

Selected image

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.

Selected biography -

Toliver with the Washington Valor in 2017

Antoine "T. T." Toliver (born January 31, 1977) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the Arena Football League (AFL) from 2002 to 2018. He played football and basketball at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida. In 1995, he was named the Class 5A Player of the Year in football and was also runner-up for Florida's Mr. Football Award. In basketball, Toliver helped Mainland win the Class 6A state championship in 1995 and 1996. He played college football and basketball at Hinds Community College, where he was named the 1997 Junior College Player of the Year as a quarterback. He lost his college football eligibility after signing with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League in 1998. Toliver later enrolled at Bethune-Cookman University, where he played basketball.

From 2000 to 2002, Toliver spent time on the practice squads of the St. Louis Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League. He was part of the Buccaneers team that won Super Bowl XXXVII in January 2003. He played for the Tampa Bay Storm of the AFL from 2002 to 2005. In 2003, he was part of the Storm team that won ArenaBowl XVII, becoming the first person to win an ArenaBowl and Super Bowl in the same year. Toliver later played for the AFL's Nashville Kats from 2005 to 2006, the Storm in 2007, the Orlando Predators from 2007 to 2013, the Storm from 2014 to 2016 and the Valor from 2017 to 2018. He was named first-team All-Arena in 2008 and second-team All-Arena in 2016. He is the AFL's all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards and all-purpose yards. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

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

“

I think he was the greatest football player that I ever stepped on the field against. Nobody dictated what you could do offensively like L.T..

”

— Steve Bartkowski

Retired Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Rams quarterback, on New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor

Did you know...

...that the Sacramento Sirens are the only professional women's full-tackle team ever to have won four consecutive league championships, having captured the Women's American Football Conference title in 2001 and that of the Independent Women's Football League in 2002, 2003, and 2004?
...that the 2002 and 2003 winners of the Pete Dawkins Trophy as most valuable player of the high school U.S. Army All-American Bowl, quarterbacks Vince Young (pictured) and Chris Leak, were subsequently the offensive most valuable players, respectively, of the 2005 and 2006 BCS National Championship Games?
...that since the 1970 merger between the American and National Football Leagues, the Minnesota Vikings have in the regular season won more games than all save five teams but have never won a Super Bowl?

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American football

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WikiProject Sports
- WikiProject American football
  - WikiProject American Football League
  - WikiProject Arena Football League
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  - WikiProject National Football League
    - WikiProject Pittsburgh Steelers
    - WikiProject Chicago Bears
    - WikiProject Green Bay Packers
    - WikiProject New England Patriots
    - WikiProject San Francisco 49ers
    - WikiProject Los Angeles Rams
- WikiProject Canadian football
- WikiProject European League of Football

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