One of 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 into 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 maximum points in the stipulated time is declared the winner.
American football has its origins in rugby football but has adapted itself with some 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 such as in the team size, playing area, number of downs, time rules etc. The differences are not major and each can be adapted into another with a few degree of tuning.
There are 2 major types of American football played in the USA, namely, collegiate football and professional football. Together with the growth as well as the increasing popularity quite a few football leagues were born in the nation. The two 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 from the various colleges, military academies and universities across the country is known as 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 get played in America was in 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University, Montreal. The 1st collegiate football competition was held the next year in 1875 in the match played between Tufts University and Harvard.
Modern 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 till the beginning of December. The penultimate weekend of the college football season sees the majority 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 are a part of the two leagues in the U . S called the NFL and the UFL. The NFL enjoys the status for being the biggest professional football league on the globe. Formed with eleven teams this league has grown in strength and now includes 32 teams. The league is further split up 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.
