Portal:American football

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American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or throwing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance the ball at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football game was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football. The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game, although its rules were developed independently from those of Camp. Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football. The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States in terms of broadcast viewership audience. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2022^[update], nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes play the sport in the U.S., with another 81,000 college athletes in the NCAA and the NAIA. The National Football League (NFL) has one of the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events globally. In 2022, the league had an annual revenue of around $18.6 billion, making it the most valuable sports league in the world. Other professional and amateur leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball; the sport maintains a growing following in the rest of North America, Europe, Brazil, and Japan.

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

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

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the site of the game

The 1998 National Football Conference (NFC) Championship Game was the 29th title game of the NFC. This National Football League (NFL) playoff game was played on January 17, 1999, to determine the NFC champion for the 1998 NFL season. The visiting Atlanta Falcons defeated the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 30–27 in sudden death overtime to win their first conference championship and advance to the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance. As a result of their loss, the Vikings were eliminated from the playoffs and became the first team in the history of the NFL to compile a regular season record of 15–1 and not win the Super Bowl, a feat that was also later accomplished by the 2004 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2011 Green Bay Packers, and 2015 Carolina Panthers, as well as the 2007 New England Patriots who had a 16-0 season.

The game is considered one of the most memorable conference championship games in NFL history. Entering the playoffs, the Vikings were the favorite to win the Super Bowl, as they had set the NFL record for most points scored by a team in a single season. They had gone undefeated in their home stadium, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, during the regular season, and their placekicker, Gary Anderson, had become the first kicker in NFL history to convert every field goal and extra point attempt in a season. At a critical moment late in the game, Anderson missed a field goal for the first time that year, which, if converted, would have given the Vikings a nearly insurmountable 10-point lead. Instead, the Falcons scored a touchdown to tie the game on their ensuing drive and subsequently won by a field goal in overtime. Due to its impact on the game's outcome, Anderson's missed field goal has since become the focal point of the loss. (Full article...)

List of recognized articles

General images

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

Image 1One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 2A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 3Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 4A 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 51906 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 6A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 7Hanged U-shaped Continental Indoor Football League goalpost (from Arena football)
Image 8Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 9A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 10An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 11Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 12A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 13Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 14Sign at the old entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 15Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American football)
Image 161902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (from History of American football)
Image 17Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 18Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 19Indoor Football League (from Arena football)
Image 201897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 21Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 93rd Grey Cup game at BC Place (November 2005) (from Canadian football)
Image 22Lehigh 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 23A 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 24Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 25The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 26Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 27High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 28Walter 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 29Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (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 31Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 32Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 33An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)
Image 34A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 35Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)

Selected image

Mercedes-Benz Superdome

Credit: J. Glover

The Mercedes-Benz Superdome (originally Louisiana Superdome and commonly The Superdome) is a multi-purpose dome-covered stadium and arena comprising, as regards American football, a FieldTurf playing field, situated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

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Tuineau A. Alipate (/tuːˈnaʊ ˌælɪˈpɑːteɪ/; August 21, 1967 – October 15, 2021) was a gridiron football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). After playing college football at Washington State University, Alipate played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL from 1989 to 1992. In 1989, he was part of the Roughriders team that won the 77th Grey Cup. After being cut by the Roughriders, Alipate tried out for multiple NFL teams and received a practice squad position with the New York Jets. He went on to play for both the Jets and the Minnesota Vikings from 1994 to 1996, primarily on special teams. He also had a short stint with the Green Bay Packers in 1995. (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

“

If my mother put on a helmet and shoulder pads and a uniform that wasn't the same as the one I [were] wearing, I'd run over her if she [were] in my way. And I love my mother.

”

— Barry Sanders

Detroit Lions running back, subsequently an inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, on his devotion and the intensity of his play

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