Growth and rise in popularity of American football in the sports world
Just about the most popular sports in the United States and Canada is American football. This contact team sport is a blend of physical play along with strategic motion together with the ultimate objective of scoring points by furthering the ball into the opponents goal line or reaching their end zone by either carrying the ball and running along with it or passing it to a team member http://www.oddexchange.com. The team which scores the most points in the stipulated time is declared the winner.
American football does have its origins in rugby football but has adapted itself with some changes to the American and Canadian system. Though Canadian football and American football are predominantly quite similar there are some variations in the forms such as in the team size, playing area, number of downs, time rules etc. The differences are not major and each may be adapted into another with a few degree of tuning.
There are 2 major forms of American football played in the USA, namely, collegiate football and professional football. With the growth as well as the increasing popularity quite a few football leagues were born in the nation. Two of the most powerful and prestigious leagues that are in existence in the country presently include the National Football League and the United Football League.
American football games that see the participation of student athletes from the various colleges, military academies and universities across the country is called collegiate or college football. It was through college football the American football came into the news and became as big a sport as it’s today. Though football or rugby was played mostly in schools in England, the sport was exported to America. The 1st American football game to get played in the United States was in 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University, Montreal. The 1st collegiate football competition was held the following year in 1875 in a match played between Tufts University and Harvard.
Present day college football is in the sports news from the first kick off in the football season on the first Labor Day weekend a week prior to the NFL games and continues until the beginning of December. The penultimate weekend of the college football season sees most of the rivalry matches and conference games being played.
The professional football players are teams that play American football at a professional level. These professional teams really are a part of the two leagues in the Unites States known as the NFL and the UFL. The NFL enjoys the status of being the biggest professional football league in the world. Formed with eleven teams this league has now grown in strength and today consists of thirty two teams. The league is further divided into the American Football Conference and the National Football conference and these conferences contain four divisions consisting of four teams each respectively.
The NFL season particularly the Super Bowl, which is the final championship game is followed by sports enthusiasts and news providers equally as it truly is one of the biggest games amongst the Americans.