Portal:American football - Wikipedia

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. 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. In the case of a tie after four quarters, the game enters overtime.

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; by 1875, the sport had adopted rules similar to rugby union. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established concepts that would define the sport, among them 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 modern sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game; the two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States; the most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. Over a million Americans played college or high school football in 2022, and 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. 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. Flag football, a variant of the sport, will be played at the 2028 Summer Olympics. (Full article...)

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

Keggy the Keg is the unofficial mascot of Dartmouth College, an Ivy League college in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Keggy is an anthropomorphic beer keg, created in 2003 by members of the college humor magazine the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, to fill the mascot void that followed the abolition of the unofficial Native American mascot in 1974. Due to its nature, the mascot was controversial on Dartmouth's campus, and it was reported on in a variety of national media. With time, however, it has become an "ingrained part of Dartmouth culture". (Full article...)

List of recognized articles

General images

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

Image 1A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 (from Canadian football)
Image 21902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan (from History of American football)
Image 3Montreal 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 4Walter 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 51897 Latrobe Athletic Association football team: The first entirely professional team to play an entire season. (from History of American football)
Image 6The Hall is made up of several sections with display of the inductees at its heart (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 7A 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 8Diagram of a Canadian football field (from Canadian football)
Image 91906 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 10Footballs and a helmet at a Calgary Stampeders (CFL) team practice (from Canadian football)
Image 11Morgan Athletic Club (pictured c. 1900), predecessor of the Arizona Cardinals (from History of American football)
Image 12Lehigh 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 13Indoor Football League (from Arena football)
Image 14High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas (from History of American football)
Image 15An arena football goalpost structure featuring the rebound nets on either side of the uprights. (from Arena football)
Image 16A moment of the second game between Tufts and Harvard at College Hill, October 1875 (from History of American football)
Image 17Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men" (from History of American football)
Image 18Hanged U-shaped Continental Indoor Football League goalpost (from Arena football)
Image 19Washington Valor vs. Philadelphia Soul (2017) (from Arena football)
Image 20A 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 21Touchdown monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario (from Canadian football)
Image 22A college football game between Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy (from History of American football)
Image 23Original entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 24An Arena Football field in comparison to a standard American Football size. (from Arena football)
Image 25A Native American college football team (from History of American football)
Image 26Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, originally built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, pictured in 2005. (from Canadian football)
Image 27Tom Davies of Pittsburgh runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field (from History of American football)
Image 28Inside the original structure in 2008 (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 29Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium with the Hall of Fame in lower right (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 30The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914 (from History of American football)
Image 31A football signed by the 1974 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 32Don Hutson in 1940. (from History of American football)
Image 33Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL. (from History of American football)
Image 34Colorado's first football team in 1890 (from History of American football)
Image 35Sign at the old entrance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (from Pro Football Hall of Fame)
Image 36One of the two Harvard vs. McGill games played in 1874 (from History of American football)
Image 37An early American football team, from the turn of the twentieth century (from History of American football)

Selected image

Commander in Chief's Trophy

Credit: Naval Academy Athletic Association

The Commander in Chief's Trophy is a college football rivalry traveling trophy presented annually since 1972 to the side from the United States Military Academy Black Knights, United States Naval Academy Midshipmen, and Air Force Academy Falcons to win the round-robin series played amongst the three.

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Pollard, circa 1946

Alfred Lee Pollard (September 7, 1928 – March 3, 2002) was an American professional football fullback and halfback. After a brief stint at Loyola University, he decided to transfer to the United States Military Academy (Army) in the spring of 1949 where he played under the renowned Vince Lombardi as his backfield coach. In his 1950 season, he was Army's statistical leader in scoring and rushing. He resigned from the school after being involved in an cribbing scandal which decimated the ranks of Army's sports teams. He was drafted by the New York Yanks in the 21st round of the 1951 NFL draft, and Pollard played a total of 30 games in the NFL with the Yanks and the Philadelphia Eagles, scoring one career touchdown. In 1954, he left the Eagles for opportunity and played in the Western Interprovincial Football Union, later known as the Canadian Football League (CFL), for the BC Lions, achieving "All Canadian" status. After retiring from football in 1957, he pursued a number of business ventures in Canada including a beverage distributorship and a well regarded Steakhouse restaurant. He move back to Pennsylvania and became a color commentator on Eagles broadcasts, first with CBS television from 1961 to 1964, and then on WIP radio, where he worked with play-by-play man Charlie Swift from 1969 to 1976. Pollard also anchored a postgame Eagles program for WCAU-TV. During his broadcasting years, he worked as a regional sales manager with a large commercial printing company and developed an ice skating and tennis court facility in Berwyn, Pa. He died of lymphoma on March 3, 2002. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

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