American football is the number-one spectator team
sport in the U.S.A. Outside of the U.S. and Canada it is called
American football, to distinguish it from other football games like
soccer or rugby football. American football evolved from rugby football
in the late nineteenth century.
The game is a team sport. The
object of the game is to manipulate the football into the opponent’s
end zone and score points. The ball can be advanced by carrying it or
passing it to a teammate. Points are scored by carrying the ball into
the end zone, passing it to a teammate past the goal line or kicking it
between the goal posts. The team that has scored the highest points
when the time expires is declared the winner.
English Colonial
settlers brought the game of football to the Americas at the turn of
the seventeenth century. Some 200 years later, football was introduced
to American colleges, and in 1867 the first set of rules of American
football were drawn up in Princeton College. They were very similar to
the rules of soccer. The game was picked up by other colleges, such as
Rutgers, Columbia, Yale and Harvard. In 1876, the Intercollegiate
Football Association was formed to draw up rules that were similar to
the rugby union.
Some changes were introduced to the game after
it was found that it was dangerous and causing high fatalities. It was
not until 1920s that professional league games were started. The
American Professional Football Association (APFA) was started in 1921.
It was renamed the NFL (National Football League) in 1922. The first
championship was between the Chicago Bears and New York Giants.
In
1960, another league was formed, called the American Football League
(AFL). At the end of the 1966 season, the NFL champions played the AFL
champions for the first-ever Super Bowl, the world cup of American
football. Football is played at a number of levels in the U.S. and
elsewhere. The major leagues are as follows: National Football League
(top level men’s professional league), NFL Europe, College Football,
Mexican College Football, British Collegiate American Football League,
German Football League, North American Football League and Women’s
American Football.
Football trophies are commonly made of metals or plastic, depicting scenes of players kicking or battling.
Subscribe to this comment's feed