Growth and rise in popularity of American football within the sports world
Just about the most popular sports in the United States and Canada is American football. This contact team sport is really a combination of physical play along with strategic motion with the ultimate aim of scoring points by furthering the ball in 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. The team which scores the most points within 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 a few variations in the forms such as in the team size, playing area, number of downs, time rules etc. The differences are certainly not major and each may be adapted into another with some amount of tuning.
There are two major forms of American football played in the United States, namely, collegiate football and professional football. With the growth and the ever increasing popularity quite a few football leagues were born in the country. Two of the most powerful and prestigious leagues which are in existence in the United States presently are the National Football League and the United Football League.
American football games that see the participation of student athletes through the various colleges, military academies and universities across the country is called collegiate or college football. It was through college football the American football got into the news and became as big a sports activity as it’s today. Though football or rugby was played mostly in schools in England, the sport was exported to America. The first American football game to be played in the United States was in 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University, Montreal. The 1st collegiate football competition occured the following year in 1875 in a match played between Tufts University and Harvard.
Modern day college football is in the sports news with the first kick off during the football season on the first Labor Day weekend a week ahead of 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 within the Unites States known as the NFL and the UFL. The NFL enjoys the status of being the largest professional football league on the globe. Formed with eleven teams this league has grown in strength and today includes thirty two teams. The league is further divided into the American Football Conference and the National Football conference and these conferences contain four divisions made up of four teams each respectively.
The NFL season especially the Super Bowl, which is the final championship game is followed by sports enthusiasts and news providers equally as it is one of the biggest games among the Americans.