One of the most popular sports in America and Canada is American football. This contact team sport is really a blend of physical play along with strategic motion together with the ultimate objective of scoring points by furthering the ball in the opponents goal line or reaching their end zone by either carrying the ball and running with it or passing it to a team member. The team which scores the most points in the stipulated time is declared the winner.
American football has its origins in rugby football but has adapted itself with a few changes into the American and Canadian system. Though Canadian football and American football are predominantly quite similar there are a few variations in the forms like in the team size, playing area, number of downs, time rules etc. The differences are certainly not major and each can be adapted into another with some degree of tuning.
There are 2 major types of American football played in the United States, namely, collegiate football and professional football. Together with the growth and the increasing popularity quite a few football leagues were born in the nation. Two of the most powerful and prestigious leagues which are around in the country presently include the National Football League as well as the United Football League.
American football games that see the participation of student athletes through the various colleges, military academies and universities across the nation is called collegiate or college football. It had been 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 first American football game to be played in the United States was in 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University, Montreal. The first collegiate football competition occured the next 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 ahead of the NFL games and continues until the beginning of December. The penultimate weekend in the college football season sees most of the rivalry matches and conference games being played.
The professional football players are those teams that play American football at a professional level. These professional teams really are a part of the two leagues within the Unites States called the NFL and the UFL. The NFL enjoys the status of being the largest professional football league in the world. Formed with eleven teams this league has now grown in strength and now 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 truly is one of the biggest games among the Americans.