American Football

#REDIRECT American football

American football

:''For details of the origins and development of American football, see the history of American football article. For information on other sports known as "football", see the football article.'' American football, known in the United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport. The object of the game is to carry the ball to the opposing team's end zone and score points. The team with more points when time has expired wins. Outside of the United States and Canada, the sport is referred to as 'American football' or sometimes 'Grid-iron' football to differentiate it from football (soccer) (soccer), a sport that it does not resemble. American football evolved as a separate sport from Rugby football in the early 20th century. Canadian football and arena football are basically forms of American football. ==Popularity== Since the 1990s, football has surpassed baseball as the most popular spectator sport in the U.S. The 32-team National Football League (NFL) is the most popular professional league. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is watched by nearly half of US television households, and is also televised in over 150 other countries. ''Super Bowl Sunday'' has become an annual ritual in late January or early February. Additionally, top players in the league are selected to play an annual all-star game, the Pro Bowl, in Honolulu. The NFL also operates a sort of spring-training league, NFL Europe, with 6 teams based in European cities. [[Image:College_Football_CSU_AF.jpg|thumb|left|250px|A Colorado State University player runs with the ball as an United States Air Force Academy player tries to thwart his progress.]] College football is also popular, with many major colleges and universities playing NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I football, and consistently selling out huge stadiums. College games are widely televised and widely watched. Many institutions in lower NCAA divisions and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) also field varsity football teams, as do most high schools. High school football is popular in many parts of the U.S., notably the U.S. Southern states, with games sometimes attracting tens of thousands of fans. In addition, football is played by amateur, club and youth teams (such as teams in the Pop Warner leagues). There is an American Football World Cup. In addition, there are many "semi-pro" teams, where the players are paid to play, but at a small enough salary that they generally must also hold a full-time job. ==Professional, college, and other leagues== Football is played at a number of levels in the United States and abroad. These include the following: * The National Football League - top-level men's professional league * College football - played by many US colleges * The Arena Football League - mid-level men's professional league. Played in indoor stadiums, hence the name "arena" football. * The Canadian Football League - men's professional league based in Canada, played using a modified set of rules known as Canadian football * The Mexican College Football League or ONEFA - played by many Mexican colleges, with the same rules as in the US * Women's American football - since 2000, there has been a surge of women's professional leagues. * Arena football - an indoor adaptation of professional football, played at a faster pace, on a smaller field * High school football - played by most high schools * Nine-man football, Eight-man football, and Six-man football - variations of high school football, usually played in sparsely populated areas * Amateur and youth league football * Flag football and Touch football - non-tackle; almost exclusively amateur * Pop warner or youth football - involves younger kids who are too young to play high school, generally in middle school. * Sprint football - players must weigh no more than 166 pounds The descriptions in this article are based primarily on the current rules of the National Football League (NFL, 1920-present). Differences with college rules will be noted. Professional, college, high school, and amateur rules are similar. Professional leagues that no longer exist include the World Football League (WFL, 1974-75), the United States Football League (USFL, 1983-1985), the XFL (XFL, 2001), the All-America Football Conference (1946-1949) (2 teams are now in the NFL), the World League of American Football (WLAF, 1991-1993 — now NFL Europe), and, the American Football League (AFL, 1960-1969). Only the AFL survives, as it merged with the NFL in 1970 and now exists (mostly) as the American Football Conference. As with most other American sports leagues, no promotion/relegation schemes exist between the NFL and these other leagues. ==The game== Game play in American football consists of a series of individual plays of short duration, outside of which the ball is not in play. These plays are often referred to as "downs." Unlimited substitutions can be made between plays. ===Methods of scoring=== Points can be scored in the following ways: *A field goal, worth 3 points, is scored by kicking the ball between the uprights of the goal posts. In the NFL Europe league, Field Goals over 50 yards (measured as the distance from the point where the ball is kicked to the end line) attract 4 points. *A touchdown, worth 6 points, is scored when the ball is advanced into the opponent's end zone. Immediately after a touchdown, the scoring team may run a single play called a try (more commonly called an extra point or conversion attempt) from just outside the end zone. They can either attempt to kick the ball through the uprights (worth one point, for a total of seven) or advance the ball into the end zone (worth 2, for a total of eight) on this play. College football and NFL Europe offer the non-scoring team the opportunity to score 2 points should they return a fumble, interception or blocked kick to the other team's end zone. In the NFL, a blocked extra point kick results in the play being whistled dead immediately. *A Safety_%28football%29 is a rare event occurring when a player causes the ball to become dead in his own end zone. When this occurs, the opposing team scores 2 points and gains possession from the ensuing free kick (''see "Kickoff" below''). Typically this occurs when a ballcarrier is tackled in his own end zone, a player's fumble goes out of bounds in his own end zone, a blocking or intentional grounding penalty is assessed against the offense in its own end zone, or a punt is blocked back out of the end zone. ===Duration=== Collegiate and professional football games are 1 hour long, divided into four quarters of 15 minutes each. Separating the second and third quarters is a halftime. If a game is tied at the end of four quarters, overtime (sport)#Football, or sometimes called "OT" for short, is played. Professional overtime is played in 15-minute "sudden death" periods, meaning that the team that scores first, by any means, wins. In the regular season, a game that ends in overtime is a tie. However, in the post-season where a team must win, 2nd or even 3rd overtime is granted. The booth makes all challenges and a team is given only 2 time outs during overtime. In college football, a shootout style overtime system ensures that each team has equal opportunity to score. Many high schools play 12-minute quarters instead of 15. ===Kickoff=== A kickoff starts each half, and also restarts play following a field goal or touchdown. At the beginning of a half, the kicking team is determined by coin toss. After a team scores a field goal or touchdown, it kicks off the ball to its opponent. The ball is placed on a tee and kicked off at the kicking team's own 30-yard line in the NFL, or its own 35-yard line in college football. The ball is usually kicked as far as possible down the field, but sometimes a team will attempt to recover its own short kick, in a play known as an onside kick. The receiving team may catch and attempt to advance the ball at any time after the kick, but the kicking team may not touch the ball until it has traveled at least 10 yards. Following a safety, a free kick similar to a kickoff is used to restart the game. The team that was scored upon kicks the ball from its own 20-yard line. In this case, a tee cannot be used, so the ball is usually punted. As a result, the ball usually travels a shorter distance than a regular kickoff, generally giving the receiving team better field position. ===Challenging plays=== In the NFL, a team's coach may "challenge" a play if he thinks an official's ruling is incorrect. He does so by tossing a red flag (like the yellow flags used by officials to denote penalties) onto the field. The referee then has 90 seconds to review multiple videotaped angles of the play, and then he either overturns or upholds the ruling. If the ruling is upheld, the team that challenged the play is charged with a time out. A team is given only two challenges per game. However, in the 2004 season the rules were changed so a team would be granted a third challenge if the first two were successful. A play can only be challenged before the next one has started. In the last two minutes ("two-minute warning") of each half and in overtime periods, the "red flag" system is suspended, and only the instant replay official can decide whether to review a play. This is meant to curb abuse of the system in which a team could enjoy two free time outs at the end of the game by saving their challenges beforehand. This system was introduced in 1999. [http://www.nfl.com/news/990526replaytechnology.html] An earlier rule for the use of "instant replay" to reverse referees' rulings existed for six seasons starting in 1986. This earlier system did not utilize the red flags; an extra referee, called the "Instant Replay Official", would himself decide whether to review each play. The old system was criticized for slowing the pace of many games, and was killed by the NFL owners after the 1991 season. ==The field== [[Image:AmFBfield.png|right|frame|The numbers on the field indicate the number of yards to the nearest end zone.]] The field is a rectangle 120 yards (ca. 110 m) long and 53 1/3 yards (50 m) wide, defined by sidelines running the length of the field and endlines running the width. There is a goal line ten yards in from each end line and parallel to it. The two goal lines are thus 100 yards (90 m) apart. The area of the field between the goal lines is called the field of play. At each end of the field, the end zone is the area between the goal line and the end line. Within the field of play, additional markings include yard markers, as well as inbound lines (also called hash marks), every yard the length of the field. The inbound lines (hash marks), which are short lines perpendicular to the yard markers, differ in distance from the sidelines at each main level of the game: * NFL: 70� feet (21� m) from the sidelines; this means that the hash marks are separated from one another by the width of the goalposts. * College: 60 feet (18� m) from the sidelines. * High school: 53 1/3 feet (16� m) from the sidelines, dividing the field into thirds. Every 5 yards (4.5 m), the yard markers run the width of the field, and every 10 yards, they are marked by numbers indicating the distance, in yards, from the nearest goal line. At the center of each end line is a set of goal posts, which have two upright posts extending above a crossbar. The distance between upright posts is 18� feet in general and 23 1/3 feet in high schools (5� m, 7 m), and the top of the crossbar is 10 feet (3 m) above the ground. ==Play of the game== A game consists of many individual plays. The vast majority of these are scrimmage plays. Each play from scrimmage is one of a series of downs given to the team with possession. These two concepts, the concept of scrimmage, and the concept of downs, are fundamental to American football, and are what distinguish it, as well as Canadian football, from most other forms of football. However, rugby leagues do have a similar system where each side is allowed to be tackled six times while in possession before surrendering possession (see the entry for rugby league for an explanation of the play-the-ball and the limited tackles rule). The team with possession of the ball is called the offensive team, and the other team the defensive team. A set of downs begins with a first down, which is given to a team either after it has just gained possession on the previous play, or it has gained the necessary yardage from a previous set of downs. On a first down, the offensive team is given four downs to gain 10 yards. This is commonly referred to as "first and ten", meaning that it is first down, and ten yards are needed to get another first down. The line a team must reach in order to gain a first down is technically called the line to gain or the necessary line, although it is commonly called the first down line. In the event a team gains a first down and the new line of scrimmage is within ten yards of their opponent's goal line, the goal line becomes line to gain. This is commonly known as "first and goal," signifying that no more first downs can be achieved, and it is necessary to score on the current set of downs. Failure to gain the necessary yardage on a set of downs results in a "turnover on downs." ===Plays from scrimmage=== Army-Navy_Game.__United_States_Naval_Academy,_on_the_left,_has_possession.">Image:Football_play_from_scrimmage.jpg|thumb|300px|Football players line up before the play during the 2002 annual Army-Navy Game. United States Naval Academy, on the left, has possession.Each down is a play from scrimmage. Prior to each play from scrimmage, the two teams line up on opposite sides of a line of scrimmage, which is defined by the spot of the ball from the previous play. The spot is, in most cases, the yard line at which the ball became dead on the previous play, plus or minus any penalty yardage. A down, or play from scrimmage, begins with a snap and ends when the ball becomes dead for any reason. In a snap, the center either hands the ball between his legs to the quarterback, or tosses it backwards between his legs to the quarterback or sometimes another player, such as a punter or a holder for a field goal attempt. The ball may become dead, ending the down, because a player in possession is tackled, or because his forward progress is stopped, or because he goes out of bounds, or because a forward pass goes incomplete, or because a player makes a "fair catch" (see punts below). Each play from scrimmage can be either an attempt to advance the ball, a punt, or an attempt a field goal. ==Advancing the ball== There are two methods of advancing the ball while still maintaining possession: *Running the ball - The quarterback, who normally receives the snap, either hands the ball or throws a lateral pass to a running back, who then becomes the ball carrier. Most other players on the offense have blocking assignments, and attempt to prevent the defense from tackling the ball carrier. The quarterback may also run the ball himself. *A forward pass - A forward pass may only be thrown on a play from scrimmage, and only from behind the line of scrimmage. It must be thrown to an eligible receiver (any player who is not an interior lineman). A completed pass is one caught by a member of the offense, although if the first player to touch the ball is not an eligible receiver, a penalty results. The player may run with the ball after catching it. To be considered "in bounds" a receiver must have clear possession of the ball and place both feet (NFL) or one foot (college) in bounds prior to stepping out of bounds. An incomplete pass is any forward pass that either hits the ground or goes out of bounds, at which point the ball becomes dead, and is spotted at the preceding line of scrimmage for the following play. An interception is a pass caught by the defense, which transfers possession to the defending team. It is important for the offense to run a variety of running and passing plays in order to keep the defense uncertain of the next play. ===Fourth down situations=== If a team uses all four of its downs without gaining the yardage for a first down or a touchdown, and without kicking a field goal, possession shifts to the other team. This is called turning the ball over "on downs." Fourth down situations are therefore pivotal. The offense has the same three choices as on any other play from scrimmage: advance the ball, punt, or attempt a field goal — but the decision is often more difficult and important. Offensive options on fourth down: *\"Go for it\" - despite the risk involved, a team may always elect to "go for it" on fourth down by making one last attempt to reach the first down marker or the goal line, mounting a regular running or passing play to get there (just as they did on the first three downs). This is most common when, due to a team's success on the first three downs, the distance required for a first down is short; or when it is trailing late in the game by more than three points (the value of a field goal). The risk is significant: failing to make the next first down or score gives possession of the ball to the opposing team, usually with better field position than would have resulted from a kick. It's often wise to kick on fourth down. *Punt - If the team thinks it is too far away to attempt a field goal, it may punt the ball to the other team in order to gain better field position, for their defense. *Attempt a field goal - Field goal attempts must be made with the ball on the ground (they cannot be punted), so a player called a holder holds the ball for a kicker. In times past, a kicker might have tried a "drop kick" — that is, dropping the ball and kicking it after it bounces off the ground — and if the kicker kicks it through the goalposts, it is a field goal. This is difficult to do, as the ball is in the shape of a prolate spheroid and its bounce is unpredictable. Nowadays, the only time you will see this is by a hurried kicker after a broken play. Failed field goal attempts, if they are short, can be returned by the opponent, but the ball usually goes past the end line and can't be returned. If the field goal attempt fails, the ball is spotted at the original line of scrimmage, and possession is given to the other team. (In the NFL, failed field goal attempts are spotted at the spot of the kick or the 20, whichever is farther from the goal line.) Field goals can also be attempted on other downs, but this is only seen in situations where a field goal will either win or tie the game and the distance to kick the field goal is well within range of the kicker. A team will occasionally run a trick play on fourth down. They will line up in a punting or field goal formation, but will instead run the ball or pass it in an attempt to pick up a first down. ==Specialized units and players== With its unlimited substitutions, American football is highly specialized, with most teams having three specialized units: an offensive unit, a defensive unit, and special teams. There are many specialized players within each unit. Some players may only be used in certain situations. (for details see: offensive team, defensive team, special teams, lineman (football), American football defensive schemes.) A list of player types and definitions can also be found in the Glossary of American football. ==Common penalties== There are many rules in American football which result in a penalty when broken. In most cases the offending team loses 5, 10 or 15 yards, meaning the ball is moved that distance towards their own end zone. There may also be a loss of down for some offensive penalties. Conversely, a defensive penalty may result in an automatic first down. Teams have the option to decline a penalty called against its opponent; this is sometimes beneficial. Usually, no penalty may move the ball more than half the distance toward the penalized team's goal line. Some of the most common penalties are listed below. For a more detailed discussion, see American football rules. :''Note:'' The neutral zone is the space defined by lines drawn through the ends of the ball parallel to the yard lines when the ball is spotted and ready for play. No player may legally have any part of his body in the neutral zone when the ball is snapped, with the exception of the center. ===Penalties against the offense=== *Illegal procedure (5 yards) - Most commonly, any player moving after they have gotten in their set position before the snap in a way that simulates the start of the play. Other illegal procedure penalties include linemen not getting into a set position, not having at least 7 men on the line of scrimmage, and in college football, illegal substitution. *Delay of game (5 yards) - allowing the play clock to elapse before the snap *Holding (10 yards) - illegal use of the hands or arms while blocking; an automatic safety is assessed instead if spot of infraction is within the offensive team's own end zone. *Offensive pass interference (10 yards) - interfering with a defender attempting to catch a pass *Intentional grounding - throwing the ball into the ground to avoid being tackled **NFL penalty: 10 yards or spot of foul, whichever is farther from the original line of scrimmage, and loss of down **College penalty: Spot of foul and loss of down **In both NFL and college, intentional grounding from the offensive team's own end zone constitutes an automatic safety unless the defense chooses to decline the penalty, which might only ever happen if the infraction had occurred on a fourth-down play. If the quarterback has moved outside of the area between his offensive tackles (the "pocket"), there is no penalty for grounding the ball if the quarterback throws the ball past the line of scrimmage. There is also no penalty for "spiking" the ball to stop the game clock, by throwing it directly into the ground. However, such an action must be executed immediately after the snap of the ball, before the quarterback demonstrates intent to make a forward pass. *Illegal blocks **Illegal block in the back (10 yards) - an illegal block from behind and ''above'' the waist **Clipping (15 yards) - an illegal block from behind and ''below'' the waist **Illegal crackback block (15 yards) - an illegal block, from any direction, below the waist by any offensive player not on the offensive line (e.g. wide receivers, quarterbacks and running backs) *Ineligible receiver (10 yards) - The center, guard, and tackles are considered ineligible receivers(although they may become eligible before the play if the offensive team notifies the referee who will notify the other team. As such if the ineligible player goes downfield before the pass or touches the pass, this penalty is called. The exception is if the ball is tipped by a defender, then anyone is eligible to catch the ball. In the NFL ineligible receivers have the numbers 50-79 and 90-99. ===Penalties against the defense=== *Offsides (5 yards) - Being across the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped, or being in the neutral zone when the ball is snapped. When called, the official throws a flag, but the play continues. *Encroachment (5 yards) - A "defensive false start," called when a defensive player contacts an offensive player or crosses the offensive line before the snap. When called, the official throws a flag and blows his whistle, stopping the play. *Running into the kicker (5 yards) - during a kick from scrimmage *Pass interference - interfering with a receiver's attempt to catch the ball. **NFL: This can be a devastating penalty because the ball is moved forward to the location of the interference, as if it had been caught. **College: An automatic first down. Penalty is 15 yards or the spot of the foul, whichever is closer to the previous line of scrimmage. **High school: 15 yards and an automatic first down *Defensive holding or Illegal use of hands (5 yards and an automatic first down; in college, the chains are not moved if the previous play was 1st and 10, making the next play 1st and 5, as in "Offsides" or "Encroachment" above) - illegal use of the hands or arms either while attempting to ward off a block, or to cover a receiver *Illegal contact (informally, illegal chuck, 5 yards and an automatic first down; in college, same exception noted in "Defensive holding" above applies) - any contact made between a defender and a receiver after the latter has traversed more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage; this rule was adopted in 1978, and its enactment is regarded as contributing to the dramatic increase in both passing yardage and scoring the NFL has witnessed since that time. *Piling on (15 yards and automatic first down) - unnecessarily falling on or jumping on any player who has already been downed *Roughing the kicker (15 yards and automatic first down) - tackling the kicker after he has kicked the ball *Roughing the passer (15 yards and automatic first down) - tackling the quarterback after he has thrown a forward pass. The defender is expected to make a reasonable effort to avoid the passer; if, once the ball is thrown, contact is imminent or inevitable, no penalty is called. ===Penalties against either team=== *Too many players on the field (5 yards) *Grabbing the face mask (5 or 15 yards) - If there is pulling, twisting or turning, 15 yards; otherwise 5 yards. In college, any face mask penalty on the defense results in an automatic first down; in the NFL, only the 15-yard ("flagrant") face mask penalty results in an automatic first down, but in the case of a 5-yard penalty the down remains the same. *Unsportsmanlike conduct (15 yards on the kickoff) - Any conduct by anyone involved in the game—usually a player, but occasionally a coach, and very rarely one or more spectators—deemed to be especially objectionable by the game officials, or by rule. The penalty is usually strictly enforced more in college football than in the NFL. However, after several outrageous incidents in the 2003 season (Joe Horn took a call from his cell phone hidden in the field goal stand, Terrell Owens signed a ball and threw it in the crowd, he also grabbed a cheerleaders pompoms, the list goes on) the NFL enforced a strict “no-nonsense” crackdown in 2004. Any introduction of a foreign object in celebration was a sure penalty, and anything else a referee deemed to be inappropriate, lewd, or excessive was also the usual 15-yard setback. *Unnecessary roughness (15 yards) - Tackling or striking another player after the ball is dead or when the player is out of bounds. Repeated infractions or especially severe fouls may result in the player's ejection from the game. ==Development of the game== ''For more information see the article: History of American football.'' Both American football and soccer have their origins in football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, and American football is directly descended from rugby football. Rugby was first introduced to North America in Canada, brought by the British Army garrison in Montreal which played a series of games with McGill University. In 1874, McGill arranged to play a few games in the United States, at Harvard University, which liked the new game so much that it became a feature of the Ivy League. Both Canadian and American football evolved from this point. For an in-depth overview of the differences and similarities of Canadian football and American football see: Comparison of Canadian and American football American football in its current form grew out of a series of three games between Harvard University and McGill University of Montreal in 1874. McGill played rugby football while Harvard played the Boston Game, which was closer to soccer. As often happened in those days of far from universal rules, the teams alternated rules so that both would have a fair chance. The Harvard players liked having the opportunity to run with the ball, and in 1875 persuaded Yale University to adopt rugby rules for their annual game. In 1876 Yale, Harvard, Princeton University, and Columbia University formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, which used the rugby code, except for a slight difference in scoring. In 1880 Walter Camp introduced the scrimmage in place of the rugby Scrum (rugby). In 1882 the system of downs was introduced to thwart Princeton's and Yale's strategy of controlling the ball without trying to score. In 1883 the number of players was reduced, at Camp's urging, to eleven, and Camp introduced the soon standard arrangement of a seven-man offensive line with a quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback. On September 3, 1895 the first professional football game was played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club. (Latrobe won the contest 12-0.). By the 1890s interlocking offensive formations such as the flying wedge and the practice of teammates physically dragging ball-carrying players forward had made the game extremely dangerous. Despite restrictions on the flying wedge and other precautions, in 1905 eighteen players were killed in games. President Theodore Roosevelt informed the universities that the game must be made safer. To force them to respond to his concerns, he threatened to pressure Congress to make playing football a federal crime. In 1906, two rival organizing bodies, the Intercollegiate Rules Committee and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association, met in New York; eventually they agreed on several new rules intended to make the game safer, among them the addition of a neutral zone between the scrimmage lines and a requirement that at least six players from each team line up on them. The most far-reaching innovation they considered, though, was the legalization of the forward pass. This was very controversial at the time, much derided by purists. As an alternative means of opening out the play, Walter Camp would have preferred widening the field; but representatives from Harvard pointed to recently constructed Harvard Stadium, which could not be widened, and the forward pass was adopted; it has come to shape the whole history of American football, as opposed to its cousins around the world. In 1910, after further deaths, interlocking formations were finally outlawed; and in 1912 the field was changed to its current size, the value of a touchdown increased to 6 points, and a fourth down added to each possession. The game had achieved its modern form. == Beyond recreation and entertainment == === Football scandals === There is a long history in the second half of the 20th century of controversy over the tension in college football between values important to the institution's academic mission and the team's win-and-loss record. Many observers suggest that athletic talent plays a disproportionate role in college admission. Measures that are seen as effective in maintaining players' academic eligibility but not in furthering their graduation or competence in their fields of study attract similar criticism. Recent attitudes toward and awareness of steroid use are also evolving. Fans and critics actively debate the role of steroids in professional and amateur football. ===Football and drugs=== Contemporary football players are larger than their predecessors of only 30 or 40 years ago. It is quite normal, for instance, for all the members of the offensive line of a major college or professional team to weigh more than 300 pounds (136 kg.), whereas in the 1960's linemen who weighed only 270 pounds were common. The increase in player size has led to an increase in the frequency and severity of injuries. Since nutritional standards and weight-training technique were already quite advanced even in the 1960's, it has been conjectured that much of the increase in the size of the players is the result of the widespread availability of illegal anabolic steroids, which facilitate increased growth of muscle tissue. Such drugs are widely available even to high school players. Because anabolic steroids have dangerous side effects, the National Football League tests its players for steroids, and penalizes those who are caught. However, it has recently emerged that new varieties of steroids are being developed in clandestine laboratories, which elude existing drug tests. Hence there is a kind of "arms race" between the scientists who develop new kinds of illegal steroids and those who develop tests to detect them. ===Injuries=== Despite the helmets and heavy padding worn by all players on the field, injuries are common in football. An "Injury Report" section is ubiquitous in American newspapers' sports sections, detailing, for each injured player on each team, his injury and the amount of time he is expected to be out. Twice-weekly during the season (Wednesdays and Fridays), all NFL teams must report the status of their injured players, or be subject to a fine from the league. The standard severity descriptions are "out" (will not play in the coming game); "doubtful" (25% chance of playing); "questionable" (50% chance of playing); or "probable" (75% chance of playing). Note that teams occasionally manipulate their injury reports, minimizing or maximizing the extent of a player's injury, as an attempt to strategically deny their upcoming opponents a clear picture of the team's health. Similar systems are in place for most major American sports. The NFL has a roster limit of 53 players per team during the season; 45 of which dress for a game plus an "emergency quarterback" who only plays if all the quarterbacks on the 45-man roster are out of the game. Players who are injured are frequently among the eight that do not dress. If it becomes certain that a player will not play for the rest of the season, the team may put him on the "Injured Reserve" list and replace the player on the roster. An average of about eight players die each year in the United States as a result of injuries received in games at all levels. About 160 concussions occur every season, and the National Football League now collects benchmark measures of awareness for each player, which can be used during a game to judge whether he has been concussed. Injuries sustained by football players often are permanent. Many former football players experience pain, sometimes severe, that lasts for the rest of their lives. Many players require surgery, even multiple surgeries, for injuries experienced years earlier. Interestingly, newspaper reporters who have interviewed former football players who are crippled or in pain as a result of their former sport find that a player will never (or virtually never) express regret over his choice of career. The players often state that the thrill of playing football was worth the price of a lifetime of subsequent pain. Deaths and long-term disability attributed to illegal use of anabolic steroids have become a new factor in this picture, starting in about the 1990s. Instances of heat-related death, especially during professional practice sessions, have begun receiving press attention in the decade of the 2000s, and led to new standards intended to respond cautiously to possible danger signs that traditionally had been ignored. There is also the prospect that conventional first-aid technique has been in error, and an apparatus to circumvent this: apparently efforts to cool an overheated patient quickly, by wetting a large fraction of the body, are misguided, with the sudden chilling of the skin causing the body to reduce superficial circulation, and making that chilling near the surface ineffective at cooling the core of the body and thus the brain. A device suitable for professional teams has been developed, that provides for rapid cooling of small areas of skin where large blood vessels are near the surface, and is proposed as a means of cooling the blood quickly without evoking the reflex of isolating the body surface from the core. Certain penalties have been implemented in an attempt to reduce the number of more serious injuries. An example of this is the illegal "crackback block", consisting of a block below the waist by a player entering the line of close play. These blocks are infamous for causing severe leg injuries. ==References== *National Football League. [http://ww2.nfl.com/fans/rules/index.html Digest of Rules]. Retrieved January 15, 2005. *National Football League. [http://ww2.nfl.com/basics/history_basics.html History and the basics]. Retrieved January 15, 2005. ==See also== *American football strategy *National Women's Football Association *German Football League *Glossary of American football *List of American football players **Pro Football Hall of Fame *List of defunct sports leagues *Fantasy Football *Shotgun formation ==External links== *The [http://www.nfl.com/ National Football League (NFL)] - the top professional league *NCAA [http://www2.ncaa.org/media_and_events/ncaa_publications/playing_rules/ Playing Rules] (complete college football rules are available as a PDF file) *[http://www.afca.org American Football Coaches Association] *[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/papr:@FILREQ(@field(TITLE+@od1(Chicago-Michigan+football+game++))+@FIELD(COLLID+workleis)) Movie of 1903 football game between the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan] *[http://www.allfootballbettinglines.com/NFL/chron&history.htm Chronology of many events in the NFL] *[http://www.brothers.com.au/ Rugby League] American football simple:American football

American football

== Miscellaneous == What is meant by "historically known as Gridiron Football"? The only place I know of where it's called that is in Australia and New Zealand. ---- ''"American football does not much resemble soccer, the sport which most of the rest of the world, with the notable exception of many of the nations in the British Commonwealth, calls "football"."'' This is saying that Commentwealth nations do not call soccer football. Is this correct? Surely the commenwealth *does* call soccer football. Robin. ---- Most popular sport? I presume you mean "spectator sport", but in terms of attendances? TV ratings? Oh, and I understand there's no amateur football competitions for adults outside of colleges. Is that so? --User:Robert Merkel ---- This would require actual research :-), but "most popular" in terms of polls of sports fans as to which sport is their favorite (usually phrased as "spectator sport"; I think golf typically registers as the most popular participant sport). As for amateur adult football, usually this takes the form of touch or flag football. (That might be worth writing about.) -- User:RjLesch ---- This is the most "outsider" article I've ever read on football. It sounds like it was written by a Belgian who had attended several British lectures on the history and development of the game, but had never actually seen it played. The words "violence", "collision", "intimidation", and "war" appear nowhere in the article. "Block" and "tackle" each appear precisely once, nowhere near the dainty discussion of the "scrimmage". I'm the most casual of football fans, but I sure hope some other hands put some meat on these bones. :A quite accurate comment. Intro paragraph should seem more suitable now. User:Tempshill 22:36, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC) Just because it isn't organized like Unamerican Football is no reason for this most peculiar non-sequitur: :American football is not a participant sport - there are no organised amateur club competitions. It is certainly a participant sport. Children start playing organized football at age 13. ''I'' played junior-high football, and if you saw my flimsy weak body in my ridiculous uniform, amateur is exactly the word that would have sprung to your lips, assuming you weren't politely stifling a laugh. There are millions of children and adults playing football. There are more than 350,000 high-schoolers playing football in Texas alone. Besides, there is an intramural club football league at MIT and I believe other colleges and universities, not to mention so-called semi-pro leagues where players get a uniform, three beers, and $10 for bashing each other for four quarters. There are even women's amateur and semi-pro teams. There are quite a few markup problems in the article as well, and no x-ref to Canadian football, where that same "number 3 rugby ball" will also be found. ---- Added the comment: "Consequently, American Football is best known internationally as "American Football"." I don't know if that should be considered obvious from context and unnecessary... ---- User:Ortolan88 19:40 Jul 28, 2002 (PDT) ---- Is football really the most popular spectator sport? What about horseracing and NASCAR? -- User:Zoe : That's a good question. Maybe it depends on how you define it. My guess is that, in terms of the number of people who are actively interested in the games, football is the most popular, but I have no data to back that up, so perhaps I am wrong. I don't think total attendance is a fair comparison, since attendance at a sporting event isn't necessarily reflective of how many people are interested in the sport (by watching games on TV, reading sports articles about it, etc.) Horse racing might have higher total attendance then football (I don't know if it does or not), but it is an all-year sport and the same (small, I think) number of people go to the track. As for NASCAR, its popularity (I think) tends to be focused in the South. Again, I think more people follow football actively than NASCAR. But I have no data to back myself up on that assertion. User:soulpatch ::I have seen many studies that rate football as the most popular sport in the United States. Here's one good example: http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US7/REF/popsport.html - Look near the bottom. They show that football is #2 for popularity in participation. Also, the Super Bowl is the top sports event with College Bowls outranking the World Series. From another viewpoint, there is the television aspect to football. Over the years, it has been designed for television. If you go to a live game, you will hear the officials comment that the game is on hold for a commercial. They have cameras all over the stadium (even hovering over the field on thin wires). All in all, the investment in football for television pays off with increased viewership. Other sports have problems competing. Baseball and golf have a slower pace. Nascar is far more repetitive. Hockey, while fast, is too hard to follow on a television - even when they had a computerized red glow on the puck. Basketball has speed and a ball large enough to see, but lacks in investment. Maybe when they work out a way to stop the game repeatedly for commercials, the networks will make the investment in it and it can compete. User:Kainaw 20:58, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC) ---- What about the history of American fotball? Is it derived from Rugby? --User:Zenogantner 06:37 Jan 20, 2003 (UTC) : Yes, for the most part. What I can tell you is all off the top of my head, so take this with a grain of salt, because I might have some deatils wrong. But from what I know, it was originally a college sport, derived mostly from rugby, with a long series of rules changes that took place in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A few terms that are used in modern American football have their origin in rugby, such as "scrimmage" that comes from the rugby "scrum", and the "touchdown" comes from the rugby score where you actually had to touch the ball down. The number of points you get for a touchdown, and the score for the kick after the touchdown, were also tinkered with a lot back then. At some point the concept of limited length of possession with downs was introduced (I'm not sure when), and the forward pass was added to the sport in the early 1900s after President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to ban the game because so many serious injuries were happening. There are a few obscure rules that are (or at least to be) left over from rugby. I don't know if this particular rule still exists, but I recall that 30 years ago or so the NFL had a rule where you could get a free kick for a field goal after a fair catch, and I think that was some sort of a holdover from rugby even though it was almost never used in modern American football. User:soulpatch ---- Within the context of the American football article, it would perhaps sound nicer to call it "football" rather than the lengthy phrase "American football" every time. (Note, this suggestion only applies if Mintguy and other fans of REAL FOOTBALL -- or what I grew up calling soccer -- agree that no ambiguity or confusion would result.) --User:Ed Poor 15:35 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC) :Oh, wow! No offense, but I'm sorry I read this page. I agree with whoever said (above) that this is the most "outsider" article they've ever read. It seems to have been written by a fan of another form of football. There's no way this article does football justice. :This article needs help! But I guess if I'm not willing to work on this article, I shouldn't be complaining. :Unfortunately I too am primarily a fan of the game "Americans blithly call soccer", so I'm not sure I want to spend the time it would take to salvage a little dignity out of this article, but somebody who is a football fan needs to do it. I mean, come on! "blithly"? About a word that came from England and is used in the US out of necessity. Gimme a break! :I was raised on both forms of football (round ball and pointy ball) and they are BOTH great games. Too bad whoever wrote this article obviously doesn't think so. :I agree with Uncle Ed. In the context of this article, the word "football" means American football, so there's no need to put "American" in front of it every time. It's all about context. The title of the article says it all. I'm sure fans of REAL FOOTBALL wouldn't take kindly to someone putting "Association" in front of every occurance of the word "football" in articles about "the beautiful game". :Flag and touch football essentially the same (except for the flags, of course ). And then there's Arena football, which is now national network TV. :And, hey, let's not forget the cheerleaders. User:Bluelion 08:16 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC) ---- This article claims football is the most popular spectator sport in the US. I believe this is incorrect, and that the most popular spectator sport is auto racing. Is there a source for this statement? User:DanKeshet :Though I've heard the same claim (re racing) I've also heard high school football is the tops, which makes some amount of sense to me. User:Graft Auto racing?? NASCAR is regionally popular, but I don't think it compares to even baseball nationally. Any proof that it does??? What other auto racing is there? NHRA? Indy 500? Does that attract over 40% of TV housholds? I seriously doubt it. The Super Bowl does. Added together, I doubt auto racing has reached the popularity of baseball or football. User:Bluelion 21:56 Mar 6, 2003 (UTC) Add high school, college and pro football together, I doubt auto racing is even close. I don't doubt that auto racing claims that it's tops. It's hype. User:Bluelion ---- Here's an article that's addmittedly over a year old, in which NASCAR claims to be No. 2 behind, guess what, the NFL. [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/_stories/2002-01-16-usat-notes.htm NASCAR: We're No. 2! By Chris Jenkins, USA TODAY] Of course, sports executives are supposed to make wild claims. It doesn't mean I believe it. Apparently, David Carter, a sports marketer, wasn't entirely convinced by the numbers in a poll NASCAR conducted. Quoted in the article- ''I think there's a little bit of grandstanding in those numbers, because they positioned the poll,... A recent ESPN Sports Poll measuring various sports' fan bases ranked NASCAR seventh, behind the NFL, Major League Baseball, college football, the NBA, figure skating and college basketball.'' NASCAR's TV ratings are, according to NASCAR, equal to NFL regular season TV ratings. Both NFL postseason games, and college bowl games get better ratings, and the Super Bowl gets much better ratings. In comparing football to auto racing, some wild claims have been made by auto racing marketers. Plain and simple: it's advertising hype. And anyway, are NHRA drag racing, for example, and NASCAR even the same sport? That's about like saying that American football and Association football (soccer) are the same sport. NASCAR is the fastest-growing spectator sport in the US. There's no real question about that, and their attendance numbers are impressive. NFL and college football aren't growing, but their numbers are impressive, too. Football is the most popular spectator sport in the US, a claim confirmed by every unbiased article I have read. User:Bluelion 13:03 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC) ---- Football = most popular sport [http://www1.ncaa.org/eprise/main/Public/pa/stats/football/attendance/summary 2002 NCAA football attendance] SEC, Big 10 and Big 12 football outdraw NASCAR. The attendance total for Div. I-A football 34,384,264 is about equal to even the wildest claims for all forms of auto racing combined. That's not even counting NFL attendance. And some people seriously question some of the the auto racing numbers. NASCAR, easily the most popular form of auto racing, doesn't publish official attendance figures. Goodyear, which had been tabulating racing attendance figures, no longer does. The last report by Goodyear was for the [http://www.racegoodyear.com/98attend.html#attendance 1998 season], and showed a total of just over 17 million for all forms of auto racing. CART/ Indy cars appears in serious trouble or, as one pundit put it, in free fall, and NASCAR just a lost a major sponsor, RJ Reynolds tobacco (Winston). As noted before, NFL postseason games and college bowl games get better ratings than auto racing. The 2002 Div.I-A football attendance figures were a record high, BTW. User:Bluelion 14:17 Mar 11, 2003 (UTC) ---- Needs a "Strategy and Tactics" section. ---- The beginning reads like an ad. "Every ounce of their strength"? No such measurement is possible to my understanding. ---- I edited end part of the introduction to read as such: Although some people claim that American football is played by blacks, run by whites, and is predominantly intended for the entertainment of white America, this is demonstrably false. While it is true that ownership of NFL teams is predominantly white, the NFL received a B rating in the 2001 Racial & Gender Report Card (RGRC) which is a comprehensive analysis the composition of players, coaches and key administrators in the NFL and its member institutions that was put out by Northeastern University. Fans of the NFL generally correspond to the racial makeup of the team's home market. The previous information was false, racist, and not backed up by any facts. Now I will admit that I don't have any facts to back up the last sentance, which is why I have written it as a generality, but it's something that I know to be true (whatever that means.) If someone can provide some backup statistics that would be great. User:jxlenny :That was not necessary. The comment was intentionally racist. Football is not "played by blacks". It is played by all races. It is not "run by whites". There are people of many races that make decisions throughout the administration of American football. :Remember, we are talking about American Football - not just the NFL. So, you cannot claim that, as an example, the Platte City, MO High School football team is "played by blacks". Last I checked, they had one black student and he didn't play football. You cannot claim that Hollywood, SC High School football is "run by whites". It is a mostly black high school with a nearly complete black administration. They didn't ship in some whites to run the program. :The original comment is by a person who specifically wants to start a racial argument. It is very rare that you will ever find a racial argument based on race. It is almost always based on the infinite ignorance of rather stupid humans. User:Kainaw 22:24, 2 May 2005 (UTC) == Super Bowl audience == "Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is annually watched by nearly half of US television households, and is also televised in other countries. " The Super Bowl is generally claimed to be the most-watched show on television, worldwide. Can anyone substantiate this easily? Otherwise, I'll try to look it up myself. This article is still treating football unfairly in some places, and saying that the Super Bowl "is also televised in other countries" when in fact it has a worldwide audience of something like half a billion (I can't remember exactly) is, I think, one of them. * Rereading the paragraph is question, I've changed my mind and I see no need to go into specific audience figures after all. A simple change makes the sentence less dismissive. 150 countries is a conservative estimate, which saves qualifying it with nit-picking about exactly how many countries in each year. That kind of detailed information could potentially be added to Super Bowl. ---- ==Deaths in football== I'll provide a reference for the assertion about the number of deaths. i have a 10-year-old reference but hope to find a more recent one. User:Trontonian 20:36, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC) ---- The intro paragraph as it stands is very POV and anti-Football. User:InanimateCarbonRod 00:05, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC) :Ok, having read the piece and now these comments, I'm forced to ask: what are you people smoking, and can *I* have some? I can't quite figure out what you mean by "anti-football"; I certainly didn't acquire any such impression from reading the piece myself. I'm itching to fix two minor thinkos and add a graf about how those medically retired players who won't trash the game certainly got paid well (by the hour) for their work... but anti-football? I thought it was a very clear short intro to the game; appropriate for something like an encyclopedia. User:Baylink 10:46, 15 Dec 2003 (us:EST) ---- ==Injuries in football== This section is broken. It says that there are 8 deaths and 160 concussions a year due to football injuries. Now, I can believe that there are 160 concussions a year in the NFL (that's about 1 per 10 players), and the next sentence suggests that this might be the meaning intended. But no way are there 8 deaths a year in the NFL (that's 1 per 4 teams!) due to playing injuries, but this paragraph taken as a whole doesn't make it clear whether or not that is what is being said. If those who put the figures in are still around, could they clarify the issue? User:Onebyone 13:25, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC) :I think they refer to all football in America but then they are to low. I found 2002 5 died directly in the game and 10 died of exercise-aggravated disease in youth through pro leagues.[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/uonc-ffp080703.php] 23 died in 2001. User:Rmhermen 14:21, Oct 20, 2003 (UTC) :: The article says, "injuries suffered in the game", though, which would exclude exercise-aggravated disease. Perhaps it would be better to include those and say something like "died due to injury or illness caused by playing football". User:Onebyone 16:10, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- I've reverted three items introduced by 166.145.74.231, because they don't fit into their context and therefore interrupt the flow and reduce the clarity of the article. The three reverts are: *(American comedian George Carlin has a classic, and very popular routine about this, called "Baseball and Football".) Not helpful in a paragraph whose purpose is to give the basics of what American football is. Perhaps it could be added to George Carlin? *New technology from a company called Princeton Video Image provides a visual indication of the line to gain on the field in network television broadcasts; the company is also responsible for virtual advertisements and the 360 degree "Matrix"-like instant replay called EyeVision used in the broadcast of SuperBowl XXXV. Not relevant to a discussion of the basics (offensive and defensive teams, how many downs). It's interesting and belongs somewhere, perhaps television? *The game is rotated amongst the stadia of the various teams, with sites chosen years in advance; to date, no contender has ever played in a Super Bowl in their home stadium. I think this belongs in the Super Bowl article. The point of the paragraph from which I removed it is show that football is very popular (look at the first sentence). The interesting fact about home teams won't help. :User:Opus33 22:50, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC) 1) I wouldn't call the intro anti-football, but it is very POV. 'Enemy'? How about opponent. Brute strength? Many sports qualify--can anyone say shot put, or wrestling, or, jeez, too many to list. War? Less biased writers would say any team sport qualifies--one group pits its most able-bodied members against another group's, in pursuit of a victory. Personal violence? How about boxing. The 'Injuries' section is also a bit POV--injury reports are also common in baseball and basketball articles. What is the source(s) for the deaths and concussions numbers? Also, could have some discussion/comparison of injuries during the pre-helmet years. The 'Football and drugs' section also seems a bit POV--it ignores the fact that high school and college training programs/equipment are much more prevalent and advanced than in the 1960s. 2) How can anyone question football being the most popular (in terms of total viewers/listeners--in the stands, and TV and radio)? Sure, if you just count people in the stands at regular-season professional meets, autoracing, baseball, and basketball may be close, but when you add TV audiences, playoffs, the Superbowl, and amateur levels (high school and college, let alone pick-up street games), it's a runaway. At many colleges, football revenues fund all the other sports combined. Also, part of the reason baseball and basketball are even close is because they play so many games--baseball teams play close to 100 games per year, compared to 20, tops, for football teams. Pro baseball and basketball games generally have attendances around 10-20,000 people, while pro (and even college!) football attendance is often 60-100,000 per game. 3) Other than my recent, small addition, the article ignores semi-pro football. 4) The article also completely ignores Australian-rules football. Sure, the focus of the article is American football, but if you bring up Canadian football, it only seems fair... 5) No amateur organized meets? Besides college, high school, and even jr high school teams/leagues, there is also http://www.popwarner.com/ == Missing Penalty? == What ever happened to unnecessary roughness? --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 03:19, 2004 Mar 12 (UTC) :Should be a personal foul, which is not listed. --- User:Decumanus 03:22, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) :: Tnx, that quick answer was worth an edit conflict! --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 03:26, 2004 Mar 12 (UTC) Hopefully my first edit to American football succeeds in reflecting that clarification. But better yet, what about describing the union of the three categories the article enumerates more precisely than as "penalties". Are those besides personals called "technical fouls", or is that just basketball? --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 08:52, 2004 Mar 12 (UTC) and the league considered by many to be the genesis of modern American professional football,the American Football League (AFL,1960-1969). The NFL merged with the American Football League in 1970, after the AFL began to successfully sign stars from the NFL. After the merger, the NFL adopted innovative features pioneered by the AFL, such as names on player jerseys, official scoreboard clocks (in the NFL, field and scoreboard clocks often did not agree, leading to confusion), and the two-point conversion. Even before the merger, the NFL adopted the AFL's revolutionary concept of network television broadcasts and sharing of gate and television revenues by both the home and visiting teams. Eventually, the NFL adopted virtually every pioneering aspect of the American Football League, except its name. I removed this section because it is pov and it appears in almost every article on american football. the person who puts this in apperently has some agenda to lionized the AFL. =="Yankball"== The article claims that it's known in some parts of the world as "yankball". Is there any evidence this is the case? Whatever parts of the world that is must not post on the internet, since there are only a handful of hits for the term, some of which are the Wikipedia article. I'm sure many people have slang terms for American football, but is "yankball" a particularly prevalent one or more common than other slang terms? --User:Delirium 16:37, May 22, 2004 (UTC) Its what I hear it get called whenever it is mentioned (which is a rarity), I've even heard it coming from a Greek so it seems pretty widespread over Europe at least --User:Josquius 11:50, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC) I'm from Europe and I've -never- heared that term before, so I guess it's not -that- widespread ;) -anon- : Is that derived from Yankee, or...? Since both Yankee and, to a lesser extent, "ball" are internationally widespread words, it seems like a word that could have originated/been used at many similar places simultaneously. :: Yes I'd imagine it comes from yankee which to mainstream europe is anyone from the US (its just New England for Americans isn't it?) --User:Josquius 16:00, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC) Yankball actually sounds like something an Australian would say, but that's first time this Aussie has heard of that term. It's just girdiron to us. ==What it's all about== I agree that this article needs quite a bit of work ... one section that really stood out for me was the "What it's all about" section (starting with the very title and content: football's about George Carlin, doctrine, and scandals? huh?) * The Carlin section either needs to be elaborated or eliminated ... I don't know his routine, but the way it's described now isn't funny or enlightening (baseball and American football are indeed different ... but aren't they supposed to be?) * I'm not sure what the point of the character building section is. The attributes mentioned are unique to neither America nor American football). These points are just the beginning, but an article like this can only be healed one section at a time. User:CES 07:49, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC) This section is just terrible. Would anyone mind if we just deleted it? It adds nothing.--User:Zakharov 05:12, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) :I would be quite happy to see this section deleted. It seems so out of place and I can't imagine what it adds to the article. User:Carrp 15:52, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) Section deleted. If it can be improved and re-added, I have no objection, but I'm not holding my breath. --User:Zakharov 20:40, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Football a metahpor for War == Removed this comment for being silly and irrelevent: ''Like most team sports (and individual sports in the context of a meet like the Olympics), American football is often seen as a metaphor for war.'' And also, because the paragraph is the unit of composition, and the comment had nothing to do with the rest of the paragraph. - user:TimShell Sep 6 2004 :The comment is silly. I have been studying the history of warfare for over 20 years and I've never heard of anyone seriously using football as a metaphor for war. It is the exact opposite. War is used as a metaphor for football. It is plain silly to think of a general telling his troops, "We're going to go out there and complete passes, make yards on the ground, and no turnovers." But, it is common (if a bit sick) to here football players urged to "attack", "fight", and "kill" the "enemy". User:Kainaw 21:07, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC) ==Perfect Season== On german wikipedia there is a discussion about the phrase "perfect season", meaning that a team has a perfect season, when it wins all games of a season. My question ist: Is this a commonly used phrase in football (or in US sports general), and does it have this definition? Is it a phrase at all? Strangely, I did not find it in en.wikipedia. User:128.97.70.87 00:11, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC) :Yes, "perfect season" (or "perfect record") is used for a team that does not lose a game. This almost never happens, though, so the term isn't used much. ::For the record, it's only ever been done once in the NFL, by the Miami Dolphins, and I'm quite sure it's never happened in any other major professional sports league in America (pretty damn hard to win 162 consecutive baseball games...) :::The Perfect Season is largely a college football phenomenon, and as generally one team per season has a perfect season, so it is still a valid term for this game. User:Bismarck == Linebacker Role == The article has the following sentence: ''Linebackers often try to break into the offense's backfield or they stay back to defend against the pass or the run.'' So, what this is saying is that the linebacker may rush or stay back. If they stay back, they may defend against the run or defend against the pass. What is the other option? Running lateral the field while ignoring both the pass and the run? What is the primary function of the linebacker? That is what linebackers ''often'' do. This is similar to saying that the center often snaps the ball to the quarterback or to another back or ball holder. That is pretty much true, but it is more correct to word it as ''The center usually snaps to the quarterback, but there are plays where he may snap to another back or a ball holder.'' Since I'm not sure what the linebacker usually does, I can't reword the sentence about them in the article. User:Kainaw 19:43, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC) :The linebackers' job, roughly speaking, is to figure out the play and do the right thing. So if they're blitzing (pass or run), one or more of them may well be trying to make a play in the backfield. How often this happens depends on the team. On anything else, they need to read the play and drop back to support the coverage if there are a lot of receivers running deep (although it's very bad news for a linebacker to be left trying to cover a wide receiver), move up on short receivers (including tight ends and backs) if they look like possible pass targets, and fill any gaps in the line if it's a run. Once they've figured out the play, they "often" do their best to flatten somebody, and that's about the only thing that's true of every play... User:Onebyone 10:49, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) == User:LinkBot/suggestions/American_football == An User:LinkBot has some possible wiki link suggestions for the American_football article, and they have been placed on User:LinkBot/suggestions/American_football for your convenience.
''Tip:'' Some people find it helpful if these suggestions are shown on this talk page, rather than on another page. To do this, just add to this page. — User:LinkBot 10:23, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Breaking this article up into smaller units == Seeing as this article is over 50K in size, I suggest that the penalties and strategy sections be broken off into separate articles, which would make this main article easier to edit and to maintain. User:Bismarck :I've started by splitting off the strategy section into Football strategy. :--User:24.103.207.38 07:38, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) :If you're splitting the article, I'd suggest that "American football rules" would make more sense as a new article than "American football penalties". There's plenty to say about football without going into the details of the rules, so the main article wouldn't suffer from removing all of the rules except for the paragraph under American football#The game. User:Onebyone 13:01, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC) ::I have started the breakup of the article. I've severely shortened the section called "The game" and moved its original contents to American football rules. I've also tried to edit and reorganize that section. My primary goal in shortening the section in the main football article was to keep the text accessible to people who know nothing about football. I tried to limit the scope to general rules (I got rid of obscurities like the fair catch kick), and eliminate the lengthy paragraphs of rules. Please continue to make improvements and condense this article so that it's no longer a huge block of inaccessible and excessively-detailed text. User:AerionUser_talk:Aerion 04:49, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC) ::When I say that I would like the article to be accessible to non-Americans, I mean it in the same way that the Cricket article is accessible to Americans. That article is well-structured and contains the appropriate amount of information for the typical curious outsider. User:AerionUser_talk:Aerion 04:56, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC) :::I'm happy that people are working on making this a more condensed and accessible article. I should have mentioned here, I hope we can get it featured soon, so it can be on the main page on Super Bowl Sunday. Baseball didn't get featured in time for the world series, maybe we can get it done with the football article. User:Rhobite 05:31, Jan 13, 2005 (UTC) == Two minor changes == I reverted daniel11's changes because I believe it's awkward to say that the ball is "kicked off a tee". I don't believe that's proper grammar, we should say it's "kicked off ''of'' a tee" or "from a tee". I also think it's important to say that "the team that scores first, ''by any means'', wins". Otherwise people might assume that you need a touchdown to win in OT. I can assure you this isn't the case. :( User:Rhobite 01:19, Jan 16, 2005 (UTC) :I like "kicked from a tee," I wasn't suggesting it ''has'' to be "off a tee," I was just changing to the first reasonable thing from the horrendous "off of a tee," which is not just wrong but sounds like schoolyard talk ;) :For the other one, I was also just changing it to the first phrase that didn't sound completely wrong, though again we could come up with something better than what I wrote. However, "the team that scores first, by any means, wins" is subject to an awkward misreading, where it sounds like a casual affirmation of something rather than meaning "by whatever method," as it's intended to. I don't really care how we finally go, but I think both of those spots need to be written differently than they are now. :by the way, it's just me, 24.whatever-it-was... I took your suggestion and re-found my username :) :All the Best, :--User:Daniel11 01:27, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC) ==Phrasing in the Introduction== I believe that the "However" in the third sentence of the introduction is not the best word to use. I edited it to read "In addition, it is also a complex game of managerial command and planning.", but this was changed back several times. "However" means "despite anything to the contrary" [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=however (dictionary.com)], which isn't the point the third sentence is trying to make. The point is that American football requires physical talent in addition to mental skills. I'm going to change it back to "in addition" for now. User:Carrp 13:15, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC) :It's not a very complex sentence, I don't know why you have trouble with the word "however." I won't change it back for now, we should discuss it and agree on something first, but I think you should re-read the line -- and again, if you still haven't understood the use of "however." :--User:Daniel11 23:18, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC) :I also don't like the ''however'', but I don't think it's major. The implied contrary I think refers to physical v mental; roughly "It's a very physical game. However it's also a very mental game." User:DJ Clayworth 20:55, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Injuries == Reading an article about Chad Pennington in today's sports section, I noticed that the NFL has strict rules on the manipulation of injury reports. Does anyone know what they are? Could they be added to the article? --User:Zakharov 20:44, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) ==Two point conversion== I can't find a mention of the NFL two-point conversion rule. I'm not gong to add it because I don't know the details. User:DJ Clayworth 20:57, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) :It's in the "methods of scoring" section but I think it needs to be clearer. User:Rhobite 21:04, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC) I edited the section. Thoughts? --User:Zakharov 22:11, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) ==Gridiron== I've heard the term used on more than one occasion, so it should be mentioned in the article. If you know a better place to put it, show us. User:Lefty 00:41, 2005 Mar 12 (UTC) *I haven't heard it used outside the U.S., as the intro indicates. I don't hear it much. It's not in the dictionary. It's not essential. Etc., Etc. If you want to keep something rather tangential like that in the article, why don't you find a place other than the intoduction, which is supposed to be fairly concise? I don't see the need for it at all. Also, unless Wikipedia follows some convention I'm not familiar with, the period should be inside the double-quote. All the Best, --User:Daniel11 12:04, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::First, what does it matter if it is used outside the U.S.? We are discussing American Football, not International Football. I simply don't see how use of the word outside the U.S. makes a bit of difference for a topic about a sport that is primarily popular in the United States. ::As for use of the word, ''Gridiron'' is an extremely common word for the football field. It is so common that it would be difficult to watch a game and not hear the commentators use the word ''gridiron'' at least once. So, it seems very strange to treat it like it is some weird American word for some weird American sport that nobody outside the U.S. knows about. ::As for the double-quotes, many Wikipedia users are computer programmers. As such, they despise sticking punctuation inside the double-quotes. Yes, it is grammatically proper, but it is programtically wrong. If the punctuation is not part of the quote, what business does it have being inside the double quotes? ::User:Kainaw 13:17, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC) :::The quote thing is not a grammatical rule, but a stylistic one. The Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Quotation marks says to put the period and suchlike outsite of the quotes. :::As for "gridiron" I'll let my previous comments stand. I won't do any more editing along those lines and accept the consensus.User:Lefty 15:16, 2005 Mar 12 (UTC) ::::I want to humbly appologize. I only scanned the intro before replying before. I didn't read it clearly. I mistakenly thought it was referring to the use of gridiron for the field - not as an alternative name for the sport. I have never heard the sport itself referred to as gridiron, but I cannot say that it is impossible that some country does call it such. I would expect it to be in Asian languages. For instance, it is XuQiu in Chinese (if memory serves), which translates directly to "Lower Leg/Foot", "Spherical Object/Ball". But, they like two-syllable words and could nickname it FangYun (again, going from memory on translating "Grid" "Iron"). However, this is an assumption and I also have to point out that American football is hardly known in Asia except where there is plenty of American military (ie: Japan). ::::So, I would strongly suggest removing the claim that it is referred to as gridiron outside of the U.S. and replace it with something that states how some people outside the U.S. misuse the nickname for the football field (gridiron) as a nickname for the game itself. I would let that stay until someone can point out either a country that does call it gridiron. If nobody comes forward anytime soon, I'd delete the reference to gridiron all together. ::::Sorry for the misunderstanding. User:Kainaw 16:36, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC) It's girdiron in Australia (probably NZ too), if that carries any weight. ==High School Football Popularity== I edited the page to reflect that high school football is most popular in the Southern United States rather than just Texas. I haven't found a Southern state to not have quite a bit of popularity for high school football. In fact high school football is more popular in Louisiana than Texas where the championship is played in the Superdome in New Orleans due to large crowds. ==POV== ''It is one of the more physically demanding sports, with a great deal of physical contact occurring on each play, and requiring rare athletic talents in strength, speed, agility, and hand-eye coordination. However, football is also a complex game of managerial command and planning.'' Rather than say how physically demanding and skilful football is, why not let readers decide for themselves from the description of how it's played?

American football

This is a category of topics relating to American football. == See also == wiktionary:Category:Football (American) American sports Football

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A