NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is the highest level of professional American football. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of thirty-two teams from the United States. The league is divided evenly into two conferences — the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC), and each conference has four divisions that have four teams each. The NFL is organized as an unincorporated association of its 32 teams. The NFL is by far the best attended domestic sports league in the world by average attendance per game, with 67,509 fans per game in the latest regular season (2009).
The regular season is a seventeen-week schedule during which each team plays sixteen games and has one bye week. The season currently starts on the Thursday night in the first full week of September (the Thursday after Labor Day) and runs weekly to late December or early January. At the end of each regular season, six teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, a twelve-team single-elimination tournament that culminates with the championship game, known as the Super Bowl. This game is held at a pre-selected site which is usually a city that hosts an NFL team. Selected all-star players from both the AFC and NFC meet in the Pro Bowl, which in 2010, took place a week prior to the Super Bowl, at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The current Super Bowl champions are the New Orleans Saints, who defeated the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV 31-17.
History
Main article: History of the National Football LeagueThe history of the National Football League began in 1920, as representatives of several professional American football leagues and independent teams met at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio. The league they formed, the American Professional Football Conference, would be mostly an informal agreement to play a common schedule and name a champion at the end of each season of play. Teams were allowed to play games outside of their league, and membership was fluid in the early years. Two years later, the league renamed itself the National Football League. Only two teams, the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) currently in the NFL were members of the league in 1920.
League membership gradually stabilized throughout the 1920s and 1930s as the league adopted progressively more formal organization. The first official championship game was held in 1933. Though the league stopped signing black players in 1927, the league reintegrated in 1946 following World War II. Other changes followed after World War II; the office of league President evolved into the more powerful Commissioner post, mirroring a similar move in Major League Baseball. Teams became more financially viable, the last team folding in 1952. By 1958, when that season's NFL championship game became known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", the NFL was on its way to becoming one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States.
A rival league, known as the American Football League, was founded in 1959. It was highly successful, and forced a merger with the older NFL that resulted in a greatly expanded league and the formation of the Super Bowl, which has become, annually, the most watched sporting event in the United States. The league continued to expand throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s to its current size of 32 teams. A series of labor agreements during the 1990s and increasingly large television contracts has helped keep the league one of the most profitable, as well as the only major sports league in the U.S. since 1990 to avoid a major work stoppage, though this may change if the league cannot reach an agreement for a new labor agreement by 2011.
Season structure
Since 2002, The NFL season features the following schedule:
- a 4-game exhibition season (or preseason) running from early August to early September;
- a 16-game, 17-week regular season running from September to December or early January; and
- a 12-team Single-elimination playoff beginning in January, culminating in the Super Bowl in early February.
Traditionally, American high school football games are played on Friday, American college football games are played on Saturday, and most NFL games are played on Sunday. Because the NFL season is longer than the college football season, the NFL schedules Saturday games and Saturday playoff games outside the college football season. The ABC Television network added Monday Night Football in 1970, and Thursday night NFL games were added in the 1980s.
Exhibition season
Main article: National Football League exhibition seasonFollowing mini-camps in the spring and officially recognized training camp in July-August, NFL teams typically play four exhibition games from early August through early September. Each team hosts two games of the four. The exhibition season begins with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, so those two teams play five exhibition games each. Historically, the American Bowl(s) were played prior to the NFL scheduling regular season games abroad and those teams faced this similar predicament.
The games are useful for new players who are not used to playing in front of very large crowds. Management often uses the games to evaluate newly-signed players. Veteran starters will generally play only for about a quarter of each game to minimize the risk of injury. Several lawsuits have been brought by fans, against the policy of including exhibition games in season-ticket packages at regular season prices, but none have so far been very successful.
Regular season
Main article: Regular season (NFL)Following the preseason, each of the thirty-two teams embark on a seventeen-week, sixteen-game schedule, with the extra week consisting of a bye to allow teams a rest sometime in the middle of the season (and also to increase television coverage). The regular season currently begins the Thursday evening after Labor Day with a primetime "Kickoff Game" (NBC currently holds broadcast rights for that game). According to the current scheduling structure, the earliest the season could begin is September 4 (as it was in the 2008 season), while the latest would be September 10 (as it was in the 2009 season, due to September 1 falling on a Tuesday). Each of the thirty-two teams' schedules are organized in the following way:
- Each team plays the other three teams in its division twice: once at home, and once on the road (six games).
- Each team plays the four teams from another division within its own conference once on a rotating three-year cycle: two at home, and two on the road (four games).
- Each team plays the four teams from a division in the other conference once on a rotating four-year cycle: two at home, and two on the road (four games).
- Each team plays once against the other teams in its conference that finished in the same place in their own divisions as themselves the previous season, not counting the division they were already scheduled to play: one at home, one on the road (two games).
Playoffs
Main article: NFL playoffsThe season concludes with a twelve-team tournament used to determine the teams to play in the Super Bowl. The tournament brackets are made up of six teams from each of the league's two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), following the end of the 16-game regular season:
- The four division champions from each conference (the team in each division with the best regular season won-lost-tied record), which are seeded one through four based on their regular season won-lost-tied record (tie-breaker rules may apply).
- Two wild card qualifiers from each conference (those non-division champions with the conference's best record, i.e. the best won-lost-tied percentages, with a series of tie-breaking rules in place in the event that there are teams with the same number of wins and losses), which are seeded five and six.
In each conference, the #3 and #6 seeded teams, and the #4 and #5 seeds, face each other during the first round of the playoffs, dubbed the Wild Card Playoffs (the league in recent years has also used the term Wild Card Weekend). The #1 and #2 seeds from each conference receive a bye in the first round, which entitles these teams to automatically advance to the second round, the Divisional Playoff games, to face the winning teams from the first round. In round two, the highest surviving seed (#1) always plays the lowest surviving seed in their conference. And in any given playoff game, whoever has the higher seed gets the home field advantage (i.e. the game is held at the higher seed's home field).
The two surviving teams from the Divisional Playoff games meet in Conference Championship games, with the winners of those contests going on to face one another in the Super Bowl in a game located at a neutral venue that is either indoors or in a warm-weather locale. The designated "home team" alternates year to year betwe
football
Football is the name of several similar team sports, all with similar origins which involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". However, the word football is applied to whichever form of football is the most popular in each particular part of the world. Hence, the English language word "football" is applied to "gridiron football," a name associated with American football and Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, Rugby league, Rugby union and some related games. These variations are known as "codes".
Common elements
The various codes of football share the following elements in common:
- Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; some variations that have fewer players (five or more per team) are also popular.
- A clearly defined area in which to play the game.
- Scoring goals or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line.
- Goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.
- The goal or line being defended by the opposing team.
- Players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying, or hand-passing the ball.
- Players using only their body to move the ball.
In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, and players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts. Other features common to several football codes include: points being mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line; and players receiving a free kick after they take a mark or make a fair catch.
Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England.
Etymology
Main article: Football (word)While it is widely assumed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") references the action of the foot kicking a ball, there is a historical explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot. These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports often played by aristocrats. There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation, and the word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball.
Present day codes and families
Association football and descendants
Main article: Variants of association football- Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie
- Indoor/basketball court varieties of Football:
- Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including:
- Futsal — the FIFA-approved five-a-side indoor game
- Minivoetbal — the five-a-side indoor game played in East and West Flanders where it is hugely popular
- Papi fut the five-a-side game played in outdoor basketball courts (built with goals) in Central America.
- Indoor soccer — the six-a-side indoor game, known in Latin America, where it is often played in open air venues, as fútbol rápido ("fast football")
- Masters Football six-a-side played in Europe by mature professionals (35 years and older)
- Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including:
- Paralympic football — modified Football for athletes with a disability. Includes:
- Football 5-a-side — for visually impaired athletes
- Football 7-a-side — for athletes with cerebral palsy
- Amputee football — for athletes with amputations
- Deaf football — for athletes with hearing impairments
- Electric wheelchair soccer
- Beach soccer — football played on sand, also known as beach football and sand soccer
- Street football — encompasses a number of informal varieties of football
- Rush goalie — is a variation of football in which the role of the goalkeeper is more flexible than normal
- Headers and volleys — where the aim is to score goals against a goalkeeper using only headers and volleys
- Crab football — players stand on their hands and feet and move around on their backs whilst playing football as normal
- Swamp soccer — the game is played on a swamp or bog field
Rugby school football and descendants
- Rugby football
- Rugby league — often referred to simply as "league", and usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.
- Rugby league nines (or sevens)
- Touch football (rugby league) — a non-contact version of rugby league. Often called simply "touch", in South Africa it is known as "six down"
- Tag Rugby — a non-contact version of rugby league, in which a velcro tag is removed to indicate a tackle
- Rugby union
- Rugby sevens
- Tag rugby — a form of rugby union using the velcro tag
- Beach rugby — rugby played on sand
- Touch rugby — generic name for forms of rugby football which do not feature tackles
- Rugby league — often referred to simply as "league", and usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.
- Gridiron football
- American football — called "football" in the United States and Canada, and "gridiron" in Australia and New Zealand. Sometimes called "tackle football" to distinguish it from the touch versions
- Indoor football, arena football — an indoor version of American football
- Nine-man football, eight-man football, six-man football — versions of tackle football, played primarily by smaller high schools that lack enough players to field full 11-man teams
- Touch football (American) — non-tackle American football
- Flag football — non-tackle American football, like touch football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to indicate a tackle
- Street football (American) — American football played in backyards without equipment and with simplified rules
- Canadian football — called simply "football" in Canada; "football" in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending on context
- Canadian flag football — non-tackle Canadian football
- Nine-man football — similar to nine-man American football, but using Canadian rules; played by smaller schools in Saskatchewan that lack enough players to field full 12-man teams
Irish and Australian varieties
These codes have in common the absence of an offside rule, the requirement to bounce or solo (toe-kick) the ball while running, handpassing by punching or tapping the ball rather than throwing it, and other traditions.
- Australian rules football — officially known as "Australian football", and informally as "football", "footy" or "Aussie rules". In some areas (erroneously) referred to as "AFL", which is the name of the main organising body and competition
- Auskick — a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young children
- Metro footy (or Metro rules footy) — a modified version invented by the USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in North American cities (which often lack grounds large enough for conventional Australian rules matches)
- Kick-to-kick - informal versions of the game
- 9-a-side footy — a more open, running variety of Australian rules, requiring 18 players in total and a proportionally smaller playing area (includes contact and non-contact varieties)
- Rec footy — "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags
- Touch Aussie Rules — a non-contact variation of Australian Rules played only in the United Kingdom
- Samoa rules — localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the use of rugby football fields
- Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) — reduced contact version introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age
- Women's Australian rules football — played with a smaller ball and (sometimes) reduced contact version introduced for women's competition
- Gaelic football — Played predominantly in Ireland. Sometimes referred to as "football" or "gaah" (from 'GAA', the acronym for Gaelic Athletic Association)
- Ladies Gaelic football
- International rules football — a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players