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. 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. , 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 Green Bay East–Green Bay West football rivalry is a high school football rivalry between Green Bay East High School and Green Bay West High School, two public high schools in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Played annually since 1905 (other than 1906 and 2020, when the games were cancelled and postponed respectively), it is Wisconsin's longest-running consecutively-played high school football rivalry. The teams first met unofficially in 1895, but did not begin playing annually until ten years later. For much of the early 20th century, the rivalry game was one of the most popular events of the year in Green Bay due to East and West being the only city high schools, drawing crowds that exceeded those of the fledgling Green Bay Packers.

With the addition of Southwest High School in 1964 and Preble High School in 1965, enrollments at East and West declined along with the town-wide popularity of the game, but East and West continued to meet, celebrating 100 years of games in 2005. East has led the series four times (1905-1910, 1922–1952, 1979, 2003–present), and currently leads overall . West has led the series three times (1912-1920, 1954–1977, 1981–2001) and their longest period of dominance stretched from 1942 to 1962, where they won all but three games. After back-and-forth victories in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, East has won all but three games since 1998, and set a record for largest victory (70–0) in the schools' 2018 meeting. Many players from the earlier days of the rivalry went on to play in the National Football League, mostly for the Packers in their earliest years. Two Pro Football Hall of Fame members played in the East–West rivalry: quarterback Arnie Herber (West), and Curly Lambeau (East), who was inducted as a Packers coach. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 11906 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 2Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 3Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 4Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 5An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 6Lehigh 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 7Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)
Image 8A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 9Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 10An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 11Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 12The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 13A 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 14Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 15A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 16Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 171897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 18Walter 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 19Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 20A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 21One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 22Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 23Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 24Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 25High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 26A 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 27A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (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 29Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American 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 Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 321902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (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)

Selected image

Quarterback

Credit: Mike Kaplan, USAF

In gridiron football, the quarterback is the leader of the offensive team. At most levels, but especially at the college and professional level, the quarterback is one of the most visible and important roles on the team, being responsible both for calling plays and making decisions during the play. Shown here is Shea Smith of the Air Force Falcons during the 2007 Armed Forces Bowl.

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Toliver in 2017

Antoine "T. T." Toliver (born January 31, 1977) is a former arena football wide receiver. 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 1997–98 Junior College Player of the Year as a quarterback. He later transferred to Bethune-Cookman University, where he played basketball but not football.

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 beginning in 2017. 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...)

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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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